Entry-level hiring picks up as companies seek AI-native workers
Major U.S. companies are starting to hire again after holding back for months, a reversal of the prevailing corporate messaging during the AI era that fewer workers meant faster growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. Companies ranging from railroad operator CSX to Google parent Alphabet have told investors in recent days that they plan to add staff to meet growth goals or to seize on emerging technologies.
The push to expand head count, at least modestly, reflects a recalibration among employers about what AI can do, executives and analysts said. For much of the past 18 months, big employers treated hiring as an expensive last resort, convinced that artificial intelligence could shoulder more tasks. U.S. public companies shrank their white-collar workforces. Now, layoffs are shrinking, and the most recent week of jobless claims was the lowest on record since 1969, according to federal data.
Booz Allen Hamilton, the government contractor that cut thousands of jobs last year as the Trump administration slashed federal contracts, told investors Friday that it needs to accelerate hiring. “We actually need to accelerate hiring a bit. We’re a little bit behind right now,” Chief Operating Officer Kristine Martin Anderson said. The company’s total head count stood at roughly 30,900 as of June 30, down 7.5% from a year earlier, but it now sees healthy demand for its services, including in national security for workers with security clearances.
Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi said the technology company expects to continue hiring in key investment areas such as AI and cloud computing. CSX said its train and engine service head count will “increase modestly” in the coming months to meet higher demand, even as it looks to technology to make up for attrition in other parts of the company. The software company ServiceNow wants to hire more sales executives to capture growth in cybersecurity, and tool maker Snap-on plans to add employees to expand its business.
Sarah Franklin, CEO of the human-resources platform Lattice, said many companies stopped hiring entry-level employees, thinking AI agents could pick up the slack. They have since realized that humans are necessary to work alongside AI, she said. “Just because you have coding agents doesn’t mean you’re not hiring engineers,” Franklin said, adding that companies with AI sales agents also need salespeople. Across Lattice’s thousands of clients, many are now back in hiring mode for a number of roles, particularly junior positions. “There’s a big thirst for that,” she said. “What you have now is a realization that you need the AI-native skills. You need this [entry-level] workforce, which is innovative, not calcified in thought. They’re also more affordable because they are newer to the workforce.”
M. Keith Waddell, CEO of staffing firm Robert Half, said that AI’s impacts on the job market are proving “more benign than some have feared.” The firm, which places people in roles from tech to financial services, is seeing clients resume recruiting. “Hiring demand continues to improve and market conditions are increasingly more supportive of our business,” he said.
Some caution remains. Paul Osterman, a professor emeritus at MIT and author of “Disposable Workers,” a new book on the transformation of employment, said that much remains unclear as AI’s ultimate potential continues to evolve. “Do we need more people? Do we need less people? We have no idea. No one has any idea,” Osterman said. He said many companies treated employees as dispensable, cutting them when convenient or downgrading them into contractor or part-time roles, and he expects that trend to continue. “AI introduces so much uncertainty with employers, not sure knowing what they need or don’t need,” he said. “Who’s going to be the victim of all that noise?”