Is AI Taking Away Jobs From New Computer Science Graduates?

New data from the United Kingdom shows that students who graduate with degrees in computer science and economics are having a harder time finding jobs. The information comes from a large survey of more than 350,000 former college students. Experts think artificial intelligence, or AI, may be a big reason why these graduates are struggling. The survey asked students detailed questions about their careers about 15 months after they finished school in 2024.

The numbers tell a clear story for computer science graduates. About 40% of them used to find jobs as coders or programmers after college. Last year, that number dropped to only 28%. On top of that, the share of computer science graduates getting any kind of professional job fell from more than 60% two years ago to just 50% last year.

Matt Hiely-Rayner works for a company called Intelligent Metrix and put together the data for a well-known UK university guide. He said AI is very likely behind this change. 'With AI providing such responsive and cheap grunt work in this field, it's hard not to conclude that this is behind the trend,' he said. AI tools can now write code and complete tasks that used to require human programmers, and they can do it quickly and at a low cost.

Charlie Ball studies the job market for an education group called Jisc. He said he is not 100% sure AI caused the drop, but it is very hard to ignore. 'It is clear that something did happen to the software developer labour market last year,' Ball said. He noted that computer science graduates are starting to move into related jobs like cybersecurity and network engineering instead of pure coding roles.

Economics graduates are facing similar problems. Many of them used to get good-paying jobs at banks or as management consultants, but demand for those roles has also gone down. Ball said he has spoken to many employers in the finance world about AI. Most of them say they are not firing workers and replacing them with AI — instead, they are changing what jobs look like and expecting new workers to already know how to use AI tools.

However, not all employers are taking the same approach. Ball explained that some companies are moving faster and are using AI tools while also letting workers go, hoping it will give them an advantage over competitors. 'But that may not persist, because everyone is experimenting right now,' he said. This means the job market for graduates could keep changing in surprising ways over the next few years.

Some universities are already trying to help students get ready for this new world. The University of Birmingham recently rose to its highest-ever ranking of 14th in the UK, partly because students there are more satisfied with their experience. The university's leader, Adam Tickell, said they are working to teach students the skills that employers actually want today. Students can even add an extra year of study in topics like AI and data science, even if they did not plan for it from the start.

Tickell said the goal is to help young people understand and use new technologies well. 'Our young people need to understand how to use these things properly,' he said. 'It's about giving students the ability to do a deep dive into the way the world is changing.' As AI continues to grow, colleges and universities across the world will likely need to rethink how they prepare students for the future job market.