What's the point in working hard if AI will just take your job?

That is at least what I was told. You study hard, go on to a career that is rewarding - be it financially, socially or perhaps, both - and you carry on this trajectory until you stumble upon 65.

But nowadays?

Luck can no longer be attributed to hard work. Picture the scene: you are at your graduation, most likely exhausted, relieved and above all, bloody proud of yourself for making it through university. You know you have to look at getting a job, but how hard can it be? Generation after generation has done this, so you will too.

A month has passed. 184 job applications sent. 4 responses. 16 rejections - even from Pizza Express, even for a shop assistant at Marks and Spencers. The First Class degree from Oxbridge no longer cuts through - your peers and you are Sisyphus, and each soul-destroying job application is your rock.

All of those late nights, the tireless hours spent in libraries, or poring over manuscripts, all account for nothing in the wake of the new job market. If you are as lucky as some I know who are training to be midwives, those sacrifices also include potentially carrying out unpaid 12-hour shifts. After graduation, one in three midwives will be unemployed, despite significant workforce shortages.

Maybe, after a couple of months, you find a job. You will most likely end up at the £30,000 mark, if not less. Your rent will most likely take up over half your earnings - and, as you are lucky enough to earn over the £29,385 threshold, you will be susceptible to the ‘Graduate tax’, paying 9 per cent of anything above that figure. Food has gone up, energy bills fluctuate and you probably pay near £10 to even make it into work each day.

And the best thing? That 9 per cent for the student loan doesn’t scrape the surface. It is the fiscal equivalent of emptying a running bath with a teaspoon. While you wave goodbye to that chunk of your salary, your actual loan is skyrocketing due to dizzying interest rates.

That university degree meant to free you from unemployment and poverty now leaves you with tens of thousands of pounds of debt and no suitable job. All the hard work you and your family put in to achieve ‘success’ has only trapped you. You may be the first in your family to go to university, but also the first to be trapped by the graduate tax.

Sixteen per cent of young people are defined as ‘NEETS’ (Not in education, employment or training). In addition, the number of graduate positions has decreased by a third, partially due to businesses tightening their belts due to increased taxes, as well as the dawn of AI in the workplace.

Graduates nowadays are not only facing the toughest job market since 2018, but are also saddled with crippling debts from the broken Plan 2 scheme that the government refuses to address head on. Interest on these loans is now capped at six per cent, which feels like something to acknowledge, albeit not thank the government for; if the thresholds at which you begin paying back remain the same, no tinkering around the edges will solve this broken system.

AI is reshaping all that we know about employment - specifically for graduates. Junior entry roles are the most likely to be replaced by AI in the workplace.

We are, effectively, abandoning young people and by association, our economy by refusing to tackle AI head on.

Let there be no ifs, no buts. If we do not invest in our young people’s careers and education to adapt to emerging technologies, we condemn them to a cycle of miserable job applications, soaring debt and a feeling of purposelessness.

We cannot live in a world where hard work, dedication and skill leave young people stranded in the wake of AI. The Government has to get a grip on how we incorporate AI before it overtakes us for good.

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Em Kitchen is a Parliamentary Researcher, Writer and Press Officer.

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