Job Market or Ghost Town?

Here’s the horror story no one wants to tell at graduation ceremonies: the jobs you were supposed to start with have been eaten alive. Entry-level admin? Gone. Answering phones? Gone. Junior research? Gone. Think of it like musical chairs, except the music stopped in 2023, a third of the chairs were yanked out of the room, and someone replaced them with a chatbot that never takes bathroom breaks.

This isn’t a dip in the road; it’s the whole bridge collapsing as you cross. No starter jobs means no starting line. And if you can’t start, you can’t move up. No experience means no promotions. No promotions means no career. It’s like showing up at the gym only to find out they welded the treadmill to the ceiling and told you to just “figure it out.” Good luck with that.

For new grads, this isn’t bad timing; it’s a brick wall with “access denied” spray-painted across it. For companies, it’s a flex to investors. They’re cutting costs and parading around their shiny AI like a kid showing off new sneakers. But here’s the catch: the race they’re so proud to win today is the one that guarantees they’ll have no runners tomorrow. It’s short-term applause with long-term consequences.

Picture this rivalry. Company A slashes every entry-level job and brags about how modern they look. Company B keeps a few humans around and gets mocked for being slow and bloated. Fast forward ten years. Company A has no leaders because no one was ever trained. Company B suddenly looks like the genius who stocked up on toilet paper before the pandemic. That’s the plot twist no one is clapping for yet.

If you’re a CEO, you should probably be sweating through your designer shirt because you’re building a company with no future captains. If you’re a VP, you’re about to discover you can’t promote ghosts. If you’re an employee, it’s time to ask yourself if you know enough about AI to avoid being next on the chopping block. And if you’re just a regular person, brace yourself for the day your kid or your neighbor’s kid graduates and has to explain why their new “career” is delivering packages for a side hustle app.

This isn’t just a workplace adjustment; it’s a generational eviction notice. AI hasn’t just rewritten job descriptions; it’s boarded up the door and put up a sign that says “Don’t bother knocking.” Unless someone builds a new way in, millions will never get their shot. And that should terrify you, because if the next generation can’t climb, who exactly is supposed to run things when it’s your turn to retire?

The real question is this: are we going to sit back and let an algorithm babysit the career ladder, or are we going to pry the door back open? Because if we don’t, the future isn’t filled with leaders who skipped steps, it’s filled with people who never climbed at all.

If the first step on the ladder is gone, who will you blame when no one’s left to climb it: AI, the companies that cut the rungs, or ourselves for watching the door get locked?

- Matt Masinga