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Youth Unemployment and AI: The Entry-Level Job Crisis | Grounds for Discussion · Roast the Post Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, Jen, I came across some unemployment data this morning, and it's not a pretty
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: picture.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: The general unemployment rate is high in Canada.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: The youth unemployment rate is even higher.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about that.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I came across a headline from the Associated Free Press that reads, "Global youth
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: unemployment rises as AI reshapes entry-level jobs."
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: For context, the International Labour Organization reported that global youth
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: unemployment
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: rose to 12.4% in 2025, 67 million people in the workforce that kind of meet that
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: definition, with NEAT rates at 20%.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: 250 million, 257 million people, as AI
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: threatens traditional entry-level roles like
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: clerical, administration, and sales positions.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the question that I have for you is: if AI is eliminating the very jobs that
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: served as
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: on-ramps to careers, what responsibility do organizations have to redesign
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: entry-level
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: pathways?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a really good question.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I had seen a similar headline.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm glad that I didn't choose the same one as you.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: so... this is the question, right?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: And we talked about this before, about what is legislation and what is a
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: company's responsibility?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think that that's where...
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: when things are regulated at the
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: highest level, like government level, I think
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: that's where we see the changes actually taking place in organizations.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: But when you ask
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: what is an organization's responsibility for redesigning entry level roles, I mean
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: they don't have one.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: What incentive do they have to do that?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: If they can get AI to take over those entry-level roles, and they're not paying for,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: you know.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: recruitment and onboarding, continuous training, salaries, benefits, things like
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: that, then there is no incentive.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: So they don't necessarily have a responsibility unless they ethically
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: feel like they should.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: but they don't, because the numbers are proving otherwise.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so when we see things like
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: pay transparency and, you know, AI disclosure in
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: job postings and things like that, those are all
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: systemic changes or attempts at systemic change, they're coming from the very top.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so for me, I don't think organizations have a responsibility
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: in this.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Should they?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but they're not going to unless their hand is forced.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a hard question, right?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: this is a very difficult thing to crack, because we think about individual for-profit
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: enterprises, profit- seeking enterprises.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing that they have a responsibility toward that is, other than the
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: stuff
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: that's been legislated, you must do this because it's a rule or else, the only
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: thing that they have a responsibility for is making money, is generating profit.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: So even with something related to this, like training, you know,
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: what responsibility do firms, do organizations have to train people?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: None.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: They need something, they look for someone who fits what they need, they hire that
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: person.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a part of the reason why the labour market is so buggered up
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: right now, so screwy.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of organizations aren't taking training seriously.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And they're saying, okay, we're going to
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: go to the labour market and find the talent
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: that we need.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Geez, we can't find that talent.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I guess we'll just throw our hands up in the air then and do without.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's goofy.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: But they have no incentive until things get
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: bad enough to actually fix that problem.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I wonder what's going to happen with this too, this problem where you have
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: very
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: few entry-level people come in, let's say, because their jobs have been displaced
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: by AI.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: You still need people to supervise AI in this utopian future that all the
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: frontier labs talk about.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: You still need the people to supervise the AI systems, and you need those people to
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: have experience.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: You need those people to understand the technologies.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you're basically saying, okay, we're going to bypass and leapfrog the
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: entry-level people for the mid-people and the mid-senior people.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: How are those people being created?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Are they just being brought in because they're of a certain age?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Are they going to be good?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Are they going to be able to do the job?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: This could be a very, very big problem in the future, in ten years.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I agree.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think that that's being thought
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: about.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is, you know, what's
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: happening right now, and profit or ROI for investors, things like that.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so yeah, I don't know that companies themselves are are doing that kind of
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: forecasting and that kind of forward thinking
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: work of what is this gonna look like.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think when they're doing their
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: predictions and their forecasting, it's about
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: dollars and cents and it's not about how how to sustain this, how to actually
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: scale and grow and they like to say that they do, they are, but they're not looking
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: at the
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: mechanics of how that is created they're looking very singularly at one
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: certain section and that's profit.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And there are certain things that don't belong in the private sector.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: There are certain things that, there's too much risk, or there's too much change
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: that's required beyond scope.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, those are those kinds of things you want to sit with public
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: institutions.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: You want
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: those to sit with governments, you want those to sit with public-private
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: partnerships, you
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: want those to sit with Crown Corps, with agencies that can actually impact the
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: change
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: without having to worry about generating profit.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And for folks who are that hard-nosed, hard-headed, capitalist bootstraps type
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: person who say that government is bad, well,
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: they're actually tearing off their nose to spite their face, right?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because the things that are needed to solve these looming problems don't exist in
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: private, profit-taking enterprise and they probably won't.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you need partners in public institutions
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: to help you solve these problems.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: But you're gutting your public institutions.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe I'm just getting a little bit cranky about the States again, but
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: that's what's kind of happening.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, holy sh*t.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah,