In a recent Guardian article, reporter Arielle Pardes describes how a tough job market and the rise of AI are pushing some Gen Z workers to skip the entry rung of the career ladder and start their own companies instead. In her article, Pardes profile Ashley Terrell, a 2024 University of Hawaii graduate who hunted for marketing jobs daily from a Home Depot bathroom before deciding to build her own portfolio by pitching free brand videos. Her story serves as the central theme for a broader trend that Pardes explores in the lives of over a dozen young workers.
Below are key highlights from Pardes article:
- A historically tough entry into work. Pardes highlights that hiring in the United States has slumped to its lowest rate since 2020 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the unemployment rate for Americans aged 22 to 27 is at its highest since the pandemic. Daniel Zhao, chief economist at Glassdoor, says entry-level workers are struggling to get a foot on the ladder at all.
- AI is hitting the bottom rung hardest. Harvard’s Joseph Fuller told Pardes that recent graduates are especially exposed because many entry-level roles involve routine cognitive work that AI can absorb. She also notes that a 2025 LinkedIn survey found 63 percent of executives expected AI to replace at least some entry-level work, and a Stanford Digital Economy Lab report saw a substantial decline in early-career employment in AI-exposed fields like customer service, data entry, and coding.
- The same tools are lowering the bar to start a business. Suhit Agarwal, shut out of Google after six applications, used Claude Code to take on founding-engineer roles. Madison Hsieh built a social media app prototype in a month using Cursor. Celeste Amadon, 22, turned down a JP Morgan internship to launch the AI-powered dating app Known and raised over $9 million. Khosla Ventures partner Ethan Choi observes that he now has zero associates and that “the ones getting jobs will be the ones who are building stuff.”
- The trade-offs are real. Most startups fail, founder demographics still skew white, male, and well-connected, and the work is round-the-clock. Even Terrell still wants a steady paycheck and employer health coverage.
- Ownership over stability. Many of the young workers Pardes spoke with frame entrepreneurship as a sense of control in an unpredictable economy. As Puppy Sphere co-founder Francesca Albo puts it, “The old promise was stability. The new promise is ownership.”
Pardes suggests that the choices Gen Z is making now may end up serving as a guide for the rest of the workforce, since the same wave of change is heading toward everyone else. As Fuller tells her, plenty of opportunities will open up. They just won’t look like the ones a high school counselor might once have suggested.
Acknowledgement: This summary was generated using AI writing tools as part of my AI Explorations process. For more information, please refer to the original article listed below.