AI isn't taking jobs. It's taking the first job.

In June, the CEO of AWS called replacing junior staff with AI "one of the dumbest things I've ever heard." He said Amazon was hiring 11,000 interns and new grads this year. He may be right. He is also unusual. SignalFire tracks hiring at the big tech companies and at early-stage startups. In its 2026 report, entry-level hiring was about 65% below 2019 at the tech majors and 76% below at startups. I run a job search product, so I see this from the applicant side every day. And at my last startup I had to let most of my team go, and then made it my job to get every one of them hired. Here is what I think is actually happening, and what I'd do about it if I were 22. Nobody is firing juniors. They just stopped hiring them. The best evidence we have comes from Stanford's Digital Economy Lab, which tracks payroll data from ADP. In its August 2026 update, employment for 22 to 25 year olds in the most AI-exposed jobs is 19% below where it would be if it had kept pace with less-ex