This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: AI is screening résumés, prompting some managers to hire fewer entry-level workers and leading others to expect beginners to tackle more advanced work, Northeastern University's AI & Society Survey found. The report is the latest in a series that opened with an analysis of how people across the political spectrum view AI training.
Ever since ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, one question has loomed large: Are layoffs around the corner? "A white-collar bloodbath," read a 2025 Axios headline. "AI is upending entry-level jobs," warned another from CNN earlier this year.
"The fears around entry-level jobs are real," said the survey's co-author John Wihbey, a Northeastern University professor of media and communications technology. Many hiring managers themselves share those worries about losing out to AI. The research team examined responses from 8,174 people who indicated they have a say in who gets hired.
Roughly half said AI made a difference in their decisions. Among them, 26% mentioned they were hiring fewer entry-level candidates, while only 7% said they were hiring more. The rest reported steady hiring rates but were divided in their expectations, with 28% expecting more output or higher-level work from entry-level employees.
The Northeastern report fills in the types of details the headlines often gloss over, Gary Friedman, a New York employment trial lawyer at Seyfarth Shaw, told Northeastern Global News. "AI can hollow out the bottom rung of the ladder or it can turn it into an escalator," he said, referring to the opportunity for entry-level workers to level up faster than before. Additional findings offer a closer look at both sides of the hiring table, now that AI has become a mainstay.
Bots can tear through hundreds of résumés in the time humans size up one, and research shows that the number of applications companies receive has more than doubled since 2022. In tech, AI use for résumé reviews reaches 83%, according to the Northeastern report. Wihbey and his colleagues note that "increasingly, software reads the résumé before a person does." And "this is happening on both sides of the table," Joseph Lazzarotti, a Florida employee benefits lawyer at Jackson Lewis PC, pointed out.
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