NEW YORK, September 18 — The story begins not in a lecture hall but on a shop floor. Since 2022, college graduates who majored in the fields most exposed to artificial intelligence have increasingly taken jobs in retail and food service instead of the white-collar roles they trained for, according to recent labor-market research and reporting.
At its heart, the shift is documented in a 2025 analysis by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab and a 2024 study from the Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School, which found that a rising share of graduates in AI-exposed majors are underemployed. The phenomenon accelerated after the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, which triggered rapid adoption of generative AI tools across white-collar industries.
Where the entry-level rungs went
Entry-level positions in fields such as computer science, marketing, finance, and customer service have been particularly affected as employers use AI to automate routine tasks once assigned to new hires. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates in computer science and related fields rose sharply between 2022 and 2024, outpacing the overall graduate unemployment rate.
Many of these graduates now work in retail sales, food preparation, and similar roles, often earning hourly wages near the federal minimum of $7.25 or state minimums where higher. The shift has implications for student debt: the average federal student loan balance for bachelor’s degree recipients is about $30,000, and borrowers in income-driven repayment plans may see payments that exceed their retail earnings.
A divide that is not uniform
The trend is not uniform. Graduates from elite universities and those with specialized AI skills continue to find high-paying jobs, while those from less selective institutions and non-technical majors face the steepest declines. Career counselors and university placement offices report that internship pipelines have narrowed, and some employers have replaced entry-level training programs with AI tools.
The story is ongoing, with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting continued growth in retail and food service jobs through 2032, even as white-collar hiring slows. What to watch next: the personal stories of affected graduates, the economic data behind the shift, and the responses from universities, employers, and policymakers.
