At 10 a.m. sharp, Angelina Pietrzyk enters the Career Service at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. This is the name of the place at the university where students receive support on entering the world of work. The 22-year-old is studying business psychology for a bachelor's degree and wants to work in the private sector in the future.
She is currently looking for an internship in a management consultancy or auditing firm - so far without success, despite around 30 applications. “The frustration is definitely immense because I have to rely on an internship,” she says.
Young professionals are very insecure
Magdalena Palka has been working in career advice at Mainz University for 16 years. Conversations of this kind are currently increasing. “Students now come with a more worried attitude than was the case a few years ago,” says Palka. Many young academics are unsettled and worried about starting their careers.
“You can also see that there are fewer job offers in certain areas because these positions are being replaced by AI,” reports Palka, who heads the career service. In addition, companies would do noticeably less marketing at universities in order to attract graduates.
This made it very difficult for students like Angelina Pietrzyk to take their first steps into professional life. “I'm really being denied the opportunity to gain my first experiences at the moment,” she says. But this is exactly what they urgently need, especially in their own dealings with artificial intelligence. “During your studies you only have theoretical experience,” says Pietrzyk.
Fewer new hires are hitting young people hard
According to a survey by the Kienbaum Institute for Wirtschaftswoche, 35 percent of more than 1,000 HR managers plan to hire fewer young professionals by 2030 due to AI. The number of unemployed academics under the age of 30 has also almost doubled since 2022, from an average of 23,000 people to 45,000 in 2025 - an increase of 96 percent.
"A few years ago we still had two million vacancies in Germany," says Enzo Weber from the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB). “You could basically choose the job, especially entry-level employees.” The labor market situation has deteriorated significantly over the last few years.
"We don't have large waves of layoffs, but we create very few new jobs," explains the labor market researcher. He calls the whole thing a “renewal crisis.” This makes life difficult for young people who want to start a career. AI is responsible for major upheavals and changes in activities in companies.
There are also job cuts
Particularly in industries with a high proportion of office, administrative and routine tasks, artificial intelligence is taking over more and more digital work that until recently was carried out by humans - often by young professionals. This is the case, for example, in IT companies, banks or insurance companies.
Allianz recently announced that it would cut between 1,500 and 1,800 jobs in its travel insurance division across Europe and replace them with AI. Competitor Ergo will cut around 1,000 jobs in Germany alone by 2030 due to AI, "mainly through the instrument of partial retirement," as a company spokesman said. The competitive pressure is great.
AI increases productivity
At the same time, AI is ensuring a major leap in work productivity in certain areas, says Clemens Fuest, President of the Munich ifo Institute for Economic Research. The global AI boom is also inspiring the German economy. “If automation is promoted through artificial intelligence, we will be able to solve many problems,” says economist Fuest. This is also important in view of demographic change and a declining number of workers.
The head of the ifo warns that it cannot be ruled out that there will be fewer jobs in some industries in the future due to AI. But: “We don’t yet see that overall employment is falling due to AI.” There is also no downward trend in wages yet, emphasizes Fuest. There is also great scientific uncertainty about how exactly things will continue in the face of enormous changes caused by the use of artificial intelligence.
Career starter: source of inspiration instead of henchman
However, expectations are pessimistic, especially for young people, as the latest ifo economic survey on wage expectations through AI shows: companies mostly expect reduced salary payments for young people with less than five years of experience. For university graduates, 50.8 percent of companies expect wages to fall due to AI, while for entry-level employees without a university degree the figure is 48.3 percent.
Artificial intelligence is causing a major upheaval in the labor market. Jobs are changing, new business models are emerging. Labor market researcher Weber calls for turning this crisis into an opportunity. "We shouldn't always just look at: What does AI do today that people can no longer do. Instead, we have to look at: What opportunities do people have to take on new tasks."
Instead of “taking on sidekick jobs,” digital natives could be used as initiators who are given responsibility earlier.
