The rise of robots is wiping out entry-level jobs, the Bank of England has warned, as figures revealed youth unemployment at an 11-year high.
A regular business survey executed by the Bank said the use of artificial intelligence and automation was enabling firms to grow without any extra workers.
In some cases, it indicates that fewer ‘early career’ or graduate positions are created.
Labour has also made it much more costly to take on workers after hiking employer National Insurance and reporting steep increases in the minimum wage for 18 to 20-year-olds, plus a raft of new workers’ rights.
On Thursday, the Bank said many organisations ‘report automation and AI-enabled productivity gains are allowing them to meet demand without additional hiring.’
In such cases, the time taken to carry out ‘highly automatable’ tasks has dropped by about 70 per cent, firms estimate.
‘For some large professional services firms, this is contributing to reduced demand for early-career recruitment, including graduates, driven both by cost pressures and a lower volume of routine entry-level work,’ the report said.
Meanwhile, younger people are shunning trades, manufacturing and farming jobs, it added, leading to an ageing workforce and concerns about who will replace them.
It came as the Office for National Statistics said unemployment remained at 5.2 per cent in the three months to January, the highest since the pandemic.
The jobless rate for 18 to 24-year-olds bounced from 14 per cent to 14.5 per cent, the highest since the three months to January 2015, representing 598,000 people.
James Cockett, senior economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said the jobs market has become ‘increasingly challenging for young people’.
‘This is ahead of the significant uplift to the youth minimum wage rates, coming into effect in just two weeks’ time.’
The minimum wage for those aged 18 to 20 will jump by 8.5 per cent next month to £10.85 per hour. Professor Len Shackleton of the Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank cast doubt on a scheme to offer £3,000 to take on young people.
‘It would be much better if the Government reversed some of the job-destroying measures it has introduced in the last 18 months,’ he said.
Meanwhile, ministers have halted steps to drive up the minimum wage for under-21s any further.
In a letter to the Low Pay Commission, Business Secretary Peter Kyle said in light of ‘concerns regarding the youth labour market’, the priority is ‘the employment prospects of young people’ over further rises in pay.
The AI tide is far higher and far closer than most people are inclined to accept. Soon, your job and all that it offers will be a thing of the past, and ultimately, your career will just be swept away from under you.
If this is what’s called progress, then I would rather not have it. The problem is, these people are always trying to fix things that don’t need to be fixed. If it works well the way it is, leave it well alone.
And these companies, watch their profits decline once AI takes over. Greed will be their destruction.
Everything is vanishing, the analogue telephone. Now we have mobile phones and automated answering services – even telephone boxes are fading. Almost every company that you phone is automated with AI – press 1 or this, press 2 for that, press 3 if you want someone to kiss your arse.
The ridiculous thing is, our governments believe that they’ll be able to tax robots!
Fortunately, AI hasn’t made its presence felt in the UK yet, but mark my words, it will sooner than later, and the reason for this is that they start work on time, don’t take lunch breaks, don’t take a myriad days off sick, and don’t whinge and whine all the time.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 