Opinion | The future job market will break career ladders. Find out who could fall.

The Washington Post Opinion piece, published on October 13, 2026[1], says a software engineer with 10 years of experience asked whether AI is taking their job "will probably shrug."[1]By contrast, according to the Post, a spring graduate describes "a mountain of applications, a handful of interviews and zero offers."[1]The piece calls this "a common pattern in AI adoption,"[1] saying that people with established skill sets are doing just fine, while younger workers face greater headwinds.[1]The Post adds that this entry-level pain has not been uniform across all industries.[1] It argues that knowing where AI is hurting jobs and where it is adding them "will help young people choose which career ladders are worth climbing."[1] It says employers have "all but extinguish[ed] the entry-level career rung"[2] in recent years. It also cites Indeed data showing senior-level job postings increased 13.5% between January 2025 and May 2026[2].The Forbes post also reports that Gartner predicts half of all companies that made AI-related headcount reductions will rehire workers.[2]An earlier CNBC report cited a SignalFire study that found a 50% decline in new role starts by people with less than one year of post-graduate work experience[3] at large tech firms between 2019 and 2024.