Entry-level job postings decline as required experience rises amid AI emergence

An analysis of 10.41 million Korean job postings from 2019 to 2025 reveals that entry-level software developer openings fell by 10.3 percentage points following the emergence of ChatGPT in November 2022. As companies increasingly seek veterans to collaborate with AI, the average required experience for developers reached 5.18 years by January 2025.

The industry rumor that "it is better to subscribe to AI than to hire a new employee" has been proven by clear data.

* Broadcast: Tuesday, October 20 at 10:20 PM

- MBC and Underscore conduct Korea's first full analysis of 10.41 million job postings - Decline in entry-level hiring confirmed across IT, design, and sales following the emergence of ChatGPT - "As AI performs better, companies hire fewer entry-level staff"... Rising required years of experience creates a "double hardship" for youth.

MBC, together with the data analysis research team Underscore, conducted a full analysis of approximately 10.41 million job postings released by about 434,000 companies in Korea from July 2019 to January 2025, uncovering the structural changes generative AI has brought to the Korean recruitment market.

Shrinking entry-level openings, rising experience thresholds... "Hiring a 5-year veteran instead of training a rookie"

Starting from November 2022, when ChatGPT emerged, entry-level job postings showed a distinct downward trend. The proportion of software developer postings available to entry-level applicants fell by 10.3 percentage points (from 37.1% to 26.8%) in just two years. In terms of absolute volume, when the monthly average in 2022 is set at 100, the volume dropped to 46.5 as of January 2025, falling to less than half.

This phenomenon was not limited to the IT sector. The proportion of entry-level hiring decreased simultaneously across various professional office roles, including sales (64.2% to 54.5%), digital design (51.8% to 43.9%), and physical design such as interior and exhibition design (47.1% to 34.4%).

While entry-level positions decreased, the threshold of experience required by companies rose. The average experience required in developer postings increased from 3.71 years in 2022 to 4.82 years in 2024, reaching 5.18 years by January 2025. The trend shows that instead of nurturing new employees, companies are seeking skilled veterans with at least 5 years of experience who can immediately produce results by collaborating with AI.

"Preference for experienced workers" becomes clearer in roles AI performs well

The research team analyzed 1,920 job function keywords based on "AI exposure." The results showed that for roles with the lowest AI exposure (where AI replacement is difficult), such as simple production workers and nursing assistants, the average required experience increased by only 0.07 years compared to two years ago. In contrast, for roles with high AI exposure, such as app developers and accountants, the required experience increased by 0.72 years (approximately 8.6 months).

The more an area allows AI to handle basic tasks, the more significantly the experience threshold required by companies rises. Even when comparing only "postings released by the same company in the same month" to exclude external factors, a clear gap was confirmed where roles with high AI exposure required an average of more than 5 months of additional experience.

Producer Kang Hyun-wook, who directed the program, pointed out, "The people experiencing the shock of the AI era most acutely and painfully are the young people preparing for employment. While the door for entry-level hiring is shrinking, more experience is being demanded, leaving unemployed youth to suffer a double hardship." As companies use AI to handle entry-level tasks and pull away the "career ladder," the question remains where the first ladder for youth to climb will remain.

Part 2 of the MBC special project, "The Case of the Missing New Employee," which exposes the reality of the recruitment market in the AI era through overwhelming data journalism of 10.41 million cases, broadcasts today, Tuesday the 20th, at 10:20 PM.

Read the original (Korean)