[Future Wave] Youth Employment Collapsing in the Face of AI

The saying, "If you go to an engineering college, you'll definitely get a job," is now a thing of the past.

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, goes beyond simple technological advancement and is shaking up industries and professions across the board. In just over a year, AI has permeated the daily lives and work of hundreds of millions of people worldwide, and young people entering society are facing a wall of instability even before securing a job. Survey results show a sharp decline in youth employment rates across various sectors, including software development, digital content, and graphic design.

Of course, technological innovation has replaced jobs in the past as well. However, it also created new industries and professions, enabling the transition of labor. When horse-drawn carriages were replaced by automobiles, coachmen lost their jobs, but the automobile industry generated far more employment opportunities in areas such as parts manufacturing, road construction, and maintenance. Innovations like the steam engine, electricity, and computers also spread gradually throughout society, providing time for adaptation.

The problem is that AI innovation is different. AI is not limited to specific industries but is penetrating all sectors simultaneously. It is affecting not only manufacturing but also areas where knowledge and creativity are key, such as finance, law, journalism, and the arts.

Even highly skilled professionals such as doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, accountants, journalists, and translators are not immune to the possibility of being replaced. At the same time, "physical AI" combined with robotics is rapidly encroaching on manual labor that requires a high level of skill. For the first time in human history, there are projections that "the value of labor could approach zero."

Governments and companies claim that AI will create new jobs. In fact, new professions such as data analysts, AI ethics specialists, and platform planners are emerging.

However, the scale is extremely limited. Moreover, these jobs require high levels of technical skill and expertise, making them accessible only to a select group of young people. As a result, a tiny minority may monopolize valuable jobs, while the majority could be pushed into unemployment and inequality. In other words, job creation in the AI era risks becoming a symbol of inequality rather than opportunity for most young people.

Therefore, we must approach the issue not as "how to create and protect jobs," but as "how to design a new social contract." The concept of a lifelong job is no longer valid, and the era when young people could spend their entire lives in a single profession has ended. In the future, it may become necessary to acquire new skills and change professions every five years or even more frequently.

What, then, should society do to prepare? First, we need to seriously discuss institutional safety nets such as a basic income system. At the same time, the education system must be reorganized to go beyond simple knowledge transfer and support lifelong learning and retraining. Above all, it is crucial to redefine the very meaning of "work." Society must recognize not only wage labor for a living, but also various activities such as caregiving and contributions to the community as having social value.

The collapse of youth employment in the face of AI is not just an economic phenomenon, but an issue of social trust and solidarity. If young people lose the ability to dream about the future, society as a whole loses its vitality. We must establish new norms and agreements that respond to the massive changes AI will bring. This is the only way for the younger generation to preserve human dignity and value, and to continue living a truly human life.

Suh Yongseok, Professor, Graduate School of Future Strategy, KAIST