Roast the Post: Grounds for Discussion
Grounds for Discussion delivers a short, unfiltered analysis on the headlines shaping organizations and the world of work. In each episode, Jen and Paul dissect one key story with sharp, bullsh*t-free insights. No fluff, just the deep dives that workplace professionals need to stay ahead of the curve.
Sources
“Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026: Back to the Future.” International Labour Organization, 9 Oct. 2026, www.ilo.org/publications/major-publications/global-employment-trends-youth-2026-back-future.
Staff, AFP. “World Youth Unemployment Rate Rose Last Year: UN.” CTV News, Bell Media, 12 Aug. 2026, www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/world-youth-unemployment-rate-rose-last-year-un/.
MBFC bias and factuality rating for CTV News : Factual / Least-Biased
The Issues
AI is hollowing out the bottom rung of the career ladder. The International Labour Organization's Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026 report puts global youth unemployment at 12.4% (67 million people aged 15 to 24) with the NEET rate at 20%, or 257 million young people outside work, school, and training. North America saw one of the sharpest rises, from 8.3% in 2023 to 9.8% in 2025. The occupations shrinking fastest are middle-skilled roles: clerical, administrative, sales, and manufacturing positions that have historically served as the first job for graduates. The ILO estimates 6.1% of jobs held by 15-to-29-year-olds fall into the categories most exposed to AI.
The deeper problem is structural: profit-seeking enterprises face no market penalty for cutting entry-level hiring and training, which means the workforce development function is quietly being abandoned by the institutions that once funded it.
Topical Q&A
Why is youth unemployment rising when AI is supposed to create jobs?
AI is expanding high-skilled employment in science, engineering, healthcare, and IT while shrinking the middle-skilled clerical, administrative, and sales roles young people use to enter the workforce. The result is a barbell labour market with too few opportunities in the middle.
The ILO links the 2025 rise to three stacked pressures: stagnating economic growth, sluggish post-pandemic job creation, and AI-driven task automation concentrated in exactly the occupations young workers hold. A young person is now roughly four times more likely to be unemployed than an adult, and youth unemployment rose in eight of the world’s 11 subregions between 2023 and 2025… a reversal of the post-COVID recovery.
The report warns that if even 10% of young workers’ most AI-exposed jobs disappeared, about 5.6 million young people, mostly in high-income countries, would face unemployment or career displacement. The gains which AI generates are quantifiable (though the jury’s still out on meaningful). Those gains are accruing to experienced, high-skilled workers though… not to the cohort trying to get its first job.
What responsibility do companies have to redesign entry-level jobs?
Almost none. Outside the many regulated requirements of operating (like pay transparency and AI disclosure in job postings), the purpose of for-profit firms is to generate profit… and the responsibility is to shareholders. This puts professional development outside of their responsibilities, though some countries (like France) mandate that employers contribute to ongoing training for staff.
Companies redesign entry-level roles only when talent scarcity, regulation, or reputational cost makes it cheaper than not doing so. That is the uncomfortable conclusion at the centre of this episode. Firms that cut entry-level hiring save on recruitment, onboarding, training, and salaries face no immediate penalty, because the cost lands on the labour market a decade later as a mid-senior talent shortage.
History suggests self-correction only comes when the pain arrives: organizations already complain they “can’t find talent” while having spent years divesting from training. Where change does happen, it tends to be systemic and top-down from government or industry self-regulation. Pay transparency laws, AI disclosure requirements, and skills programs driven by governments, Crown corporations, and public-private partnerships, institutions that can absorb long-horizon workforce risk without a quarterly profit constraint may be the only avenues which correct this concerning trend.
How will companies fill mid-level and senior roles if AI eliminates entry-level jobs?
The long term pipeline problem for the labour market is unforgiving: experienced workers are created by entry-level jobs. If AI absorbs the on-ramp roles, organizations are betting that mid-career talent will simply exist a decade from now, without explaining where it comes from.
Supervising the AI systems which replace entry-level roles still requires experienced people who understand the technology and the business domain. Bypassing entry-level hires means either importing talent from competitors or promoting whoever happens to be available, regardless of capability.
The ILO’s data shows AI-exposed roles are disproportionately held by young workers, meaning the cohort that would have become the experienced supervisors of 2036 is the same cohort losing its first jobs now. Workforce planning that forecasts dollars but not talent mechanics is a failure of long-term thinking.
Companies model ROI for investors while assuming the human pipeline regenerates on its own. It doesn’t.
Support the Show
Roast the Post is a passion project of Jennifer Houle and Paul Austin-Menear. The show helps job-seekers and employers get dud job ads out of their lives. There are several ways that you can help us on our mission to unf*ck the hiring process…
1 —> Share this episode with someone who’d like it.
2 —> Pick up a copy of our new e-Book, the Job Description Decoder and leave a review. The price is pay-what-you-can (even free), and all proceeds will be donated equally to Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon, and the Toronto Humane Society.
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