Gen Z is being locked out of work, and no human is holding the key

Gen Z is being locked out of work, and no human is holding the key

What it means for their future and your own.

Sean Kernan

Oct 31, 2026

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The New York Times recently reported a 22-year-old with a degree in biology

has applied to

511 jobs and counting.

The final straw came when she was rejected for a role at Whole Foods after doing a lengthy interview with a chatbot named Sage.

A 23-year-old is applying for administrative jobs, sitting alone in his apartment, videotaping himself answering questions about his qualifications.

And across the country, young people are enduring a new reality of the job market: they can’t get face-to-face conversations with hiring agents, like, ever.

Last year, I went looking for jobs myself. I found several opportunities that lined up perfectly with my qualifications and, in the spirit of openness, attempted a few AI interviews. There’s a surrealness to sitting on your webcam, staring into a reflection of yourself with some unseen voice responding in this smooth and endlessly agreeable tone who is told never, ever, under any circumstances, to have a personality.

After doing several of these interviews, this frictionless interaction proved to be a mirage. The bot praised every answer, thanked me for my thoughtful responses, and even assured me I was a great fit in many cases.

And then, days and weeks later, only silence.

I figured, if this company can’t invest in a person having a real conversation with me, why should I invest my time in them?

I eventually found a solid gig but I feel sympathetic to the plight of Gen Z.

Much of this change has to do with incentives. Modern businesses are designed to extract the maximum amount of value for short term wealth out of the current workforce. Companies don’t often have the foresight to train new graduates because, in the immediate term, having AI replace those positions is more profitable.

But if you take the longer view, this game may not play out as well. We could be left with a major deficiency in middle management and upper level roles.

Around 90% of companies are using AI in hiring to some extent. I met with a career consultant who told me that a big part of his coaching involves showing people how to get past applicant tracking systems, which look for specific keywords. No matter how well you align with a job in practice, you can easily be clawing at water without those keywords.

He isn’t wrong. Applicants who used chatbots to hyperload resumes with keywords are proven to get further in the application tracking system.

Gen Z’s employment problem

And while unemployment for

recent grads is only

5.7%, many graduates experience severe underemployment, working in coffee shops or retail jobs that fall well short of their aspirations.

I worry too about the effect this has on society and politics. As midterms approach, many young people are now adopting anti-establishment views, and

are becoming

deeply cynical. Many are opting out of voting and taking part in the political process entirely.

Perhaps we are wrong in saying that “AI took these jobs.” Perhaps the real answer is that greedy companies chose to give these jobs to AI.

The economics of this system are quite troubling too. If we continue down this trendline, do we end up with a huge older population and a workforce that’s not equipped to support them because they were crowded out by AI?

To be clear—I’ve never found job hunting to be this incredibly pleasant experience. It has always been quite competitive. I’ve been yanked around many times by employers.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve sat in an interview, had the other person smiling at me, saying how great everything looked, only for them to never reach out.

In the old days, getting ghosted by a hiring manager felt like a one-night stand. Today, it feels like you’re getting ghosted without any of the action.

Back then, you at least knew the company was spending time to actually interview you and investing themselves in the process too.

I vowed to stop doing any AI interviews going forward and, the bizarre part is that recruiters began contacting me endlessly to do more of them—just to waste my time. They would emphatically message me about content manager jobs and then say, “We want you to take this. You’d be great for this role.”

I’d say, “Well, I’d be happy to discuss it but—I don’t do AI interviews.” Which immediately killed the conversation. And I was fine with it.

It’s funny because I used to dread the routine of interviewing, putting on my suit, making sure my resumes were perfectly printed, minted, and tucked into my folder. I remember the anxious drives to offices, being put in the hot seat to put my best foot forward.

And now, those moments would be a welcome sight to many applicants.

One of the worst new versions of these AI interviews is that many companies want you to do 30 minutes interviews for

potentially

having access to apply to a job.

Fortunately, candidates are finally pushing back. Per a recent survey, many

professionals are actively

refusing to do calls with bots, even if it means being unemployed for longer. They see it as an “added dignity” and also a red flag for a company’s culture.

The vicious cycle part of this is that because many companies are cutting staff in favor of AI, HR is left bare bones, and forced to use these technologies to manage the immense influx of applications and resumes.

However, I would argue that a stretched-thin HR in and of itself is a red flag. If companies can’t even invest in enough people to handle the interfacing with potential employees—what does that say about the day-to-day jobs? To me—it says toxic hellhole.

There’s a part of me that wants to create an AI bot to go to interviews with their AI bots, just to eat into their token usage and prove a point.

Perhaps we are en route to a future where careers are chosen for us at age 5 based on our interests. A chip is implanted and we end up with a society full of astronauts, ninjas, princesses, and firefighters. Or at least people pretending to be.

I would remind those seeing this who are actively looking for a job—that applying and interviewing is a two way process. This isn’t just you desperately trying to find a job. You should be actively taking in information about this employer and decide if they are the right fit for you.

When a company deploys AI to interview you, they are cutting you off from that information. Well, if I’m being nitpicky, you are still getting information about the company—but not good information.

Thrive by Sean Kernan is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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