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Cutting entry-level jobs to save money could cost companies future managers

The training ground for tomorrow's executives is quietly disappearing. Companies may soon lack anyone who actually knows how the work gets done

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Matt Garman doesn't think replacing junior developers with AI is smart business. Amazon $AMZN's cloud chief called the idea "one of the dumbest things I've ever heard." His position explains why Amazon Web Services is hiring 11,000 interns and recent graduates this year, even after the company cut 14,000 corporate jobs last fall.

That's the shape of a bet playing out across corporate America right now. Companies are cutting entry-level jobs and rehiring some of them in the same year, showing just how hard it is to both automate the tasks junior employees used to do and protect the pipeline that typically produces senior talent. If companies let AI eliminate the entry-level rung, they could lose the mechanism that turns 20-something up-and-comers into top-tier managers.

The data says that bet is already straining. Young workers just starting their careers are concentrated in the routine tasks AI already handles well. That group has been losing ground steadily since 2022, and the erosion has widened every month for close to four years. What's less clear is whether the jobs disappearing are the ones companies can safely automate, or the ones they'll miss the moment they need someone who's actually done the work before.

Widening employment split by career stage

Erik Brynjolfsson, a........

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