# AI is hitting entry-level jobs hardest, Stanford study finds > Source: > Published: 2026-08-24 21:45:53+00:00 [For years](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/elon-musk-universal-income-survive-robot-workers/), AI [industry watchers](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/12/federal-report-ai-could-threaten-up-to-47-percent-of-jobs-in-two-decades/) of [all stripes](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/12/ai-company-trolls-san-francisco-with-billboards-saying-stop-hiring-humans/) have been [warning](https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/03/how-did-anthropic-measure-ais-theoretical-capabilities-in-the-job-market/) of [a coming jobs apocalypse](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/09/no-ai-jobs-bloodbath-as-ai-permeates-all-it-work-over-the-next-5-years/) driven by [ultra-intelligent AI systems](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/04/elon-musk-ai-will-be-smarter-than-any-human-around-the-end-of-next-year/) that will be able to replicate most human tasks more cheaply. Now, newly updated research from Stanford University economists suggests AI seems to be causing significant entry-level job losses for younger workers in some fields, even as older workers appear largely unaffected so far. [The August 2026 edition](https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/publication/canaries-in-the-coal-mine-six-facts-about-the-recent-employment-effects-of-artificial-intelligence/) of “Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence” updates and revises [a paper of the same name published last year](https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/working-paper/canaries-coal-mine-six-facts-about-recent-employment-effects-artificial) with fresh data and refined statistics. In that update, the Stanford researchers find the employment trends they identified for entry-level workers last year are persisting and expanding. Specifically, employment levels for workers aged 22 to 25 in the most “AI-exposed” occupations are now 19 percent below those of their peers in fields less exposed to AI disruption. Last year, that gap measured just 13 percent. ## Not all jobs are AI jobs To determine those numbers, the researchers used a large subsample of the anonymized, high-frequency payroll data [regularly aggregated by HR management company ADP](https://www.adpresearch.com/). The team then rated each occupation’s “exposure” to AI disruption using both [a potential labor market impact gauge](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.10130) established by previous researchers (we [took a somewhat critical look at that previous research](https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/03/how-did-anthropic-measure-ais-theoretical-capabilities-in-the-job-market/) earlier this year) and [the Anthropic Economic Index](https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index), which looks at how various occupations actually use the Claude model in their everyday work (Google released [a similar report based on occupational Gemini usage](https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/despite-ai-hype-googles-data-shows-workers-arent-automating-themselves-away/) last month).