AI is not displacing young job seekers – yet

Could artificial intelligence make it even harder for young people to enter the labour market? Is AI simply taking over many of the jobs that have traditionally served as entry points for people with little work experience?

No. At least not yet.

“We find no solid evidence that artificial intelligence has displaced young workers in occupations that are particularly exposed to this kind of impact,” says Roberto Iacono, a professor of Economics at NTNU.

Examined Norwegian labour market data

He analysed the complete Norwegian employer–employee dataset from 2015 to March 2025. The study was conducted in collaboration with researcher Dennis Facius of the European University Institute.

The researchers defined young workers as people aged 22 to 25.

“We use the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 as an availability shock. That was when AI rapidly became accessible to a much larger number of users,” says Facius.

The researchers compared the labour market before and after that point in time, examining young workers in occupations with high AI exposure versus those in occupations with low AI exposure.

Norway has the highest share of AI users in Europe

Norway is an ideal testing ground. In 2025, the country had the highest level of generative AI use in the workplace in Europe, with 35 per cent of workers using it.

This is well ahead of the rest of the Nordic countries and the EU average of 15 per cent.

“If there are effects in the labour market, we should be able to detect them here at an early stage,” says Iacono.

The researchers used three complementary research methods and found no evidence that young workers are particularly vulnerable because of AI.

“It's true that we can observe a slight tendency affecting workers at the beginning of their careers. Other studies from the United States and Sweden show the same pattern. However, these effects are so small that they're not statistically significant. In other words, we cannot conclude that they are caused by AI,” says Facius.

The study covers the period all the way back to 2015, much longer than comparable studies. This makes the findings particularly credible.

Will things get worse later?

But could this change in the future as AI takes over an increasingly large share of work tasks?

“The honest conclusion? It's simply too early to tell. Our data shows a tendency suggesting that it may become even harder for young people to enter AI-exposed occupations,” says Iacono.

For now, we will have to wait and see how developments unfold over the next few years.

Reference:

Facius, D. & Iacono, R. Labor Market Consequences of Generative AI: Early Evidence from Norway (PDF), CESifo Working Paper No. 12752, 2026.

This content is paid for and presented by NTNU

This content is created by NTNU's communication staff, who use this platform to communicate science and share results from research with the public. NTNU is one of more than 80 owners of ScienceNorway.no. Read more here.

More content from NTNU:

• 

  Participants became annoyed when Pepper the robot became too competitive

• 

  Nearly half of every T-shirt goes to waste before you even buy it

• 

  Why bariatric surgery increases the risk of alcohol problems

• 

  Stevie Wonder had this disease. It can still make infants blind

• 

  Study: Your body weight affects your gut microbiota

• 

  When some people buy better health, others pay the price