AI is screening résumés, prompting some managers to hire fewer entry-level workers and leading others to expect beginners to tackle more advanced work, Northeastern University’s AI & Society Survey found. The report is the latest in a series that opened with an analysis of how people across the political spectrum view AI training.
Ever since ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, one question loomed large: are layoffs around the corner? “A white-collar bloodbath,” read a 2025 Axios headline. “AI is upending entry-level jobs,” warned another from CNN earlier this year.
“The fears around entry-level jobs are real,” said the survey’s co-author John Wihbey, Northeastern University professor of media and communications technology. Many hiring managers themselves share those worries about losing out to AI.
The research team examined responses from 8,174 people who indicated they have a say in who gets hired. Roughly half said AI made a difference in their decisions. Among them, 26% mentioned they were hiring fewer entry-level candidates, while only 7% said they were hiring more.
The rest reported steady hiring rates, but were divided in their expectations, with 28% expecting more output or higher-level work from entry-level employees.
The Northeastern report fills in what the headlines often gloss over, Gary Friedman, New York employment trial lawyer at Seyfarth Shaw, told Northeastern Global News.
“AI can hollow out the bottom rung of the ladder or it can turn it into an escalator,” he said, referring to the opportunity for entry-level workers to level up faster than before.
Additional findings offer a closer look at both sides of the hiring table, now that AI has become a mainstay.
AI is on résumé duty for 54% of hiring decision-makers.
Bots can tear through hundreds of résumés in the time humans size up one, and research shows that the number of applications companies receive has more than doubled since 2022. In tech, AI use for résumé reviews reaches 83%, according to the Northeastern report.
Wihbey and his colleagues note that “increasingly, software reads the résumé before a person does.”
And “this is happening on both sides of the table,” Joseph Lazzarotti, a Florida employee benefits lawyer at Jackson Lewis PC, pointed out. Applicants are using AI to cast a wider net than before, and hiring managers are turning to the same tech to sort through the flood.
Friedman noted a parallel: with AI taking over the gruntwork and raising the bar for entry-level workers, expectations are higher for recruiters, too.
Whether this leads to better hires, however, is another question.
AI might overlook unique talents and make other mistakes, experts noted. Employers using the same screening software as their competitors risk repeating their competitors’ errors, Nicholas Corcodilos, founder of Ask The Headhunter, a career-advice publication, said.
Those errors can multiply, Friedman added. A human might make a handful, but “an algorithm can make thousands in a nanosecond,” he said.
A college degree still carries clout — but for new reasons.
Around 38% of the hiring decision-makers say a college degree makes a candidate more valuable, Wihbey said. “About one in five actually say it’s much more valuable,” he added.
It’s logical that AI use would increase demand for critical thinking that a college education instills, Wihbey suggested.
Those skills allow graduates to write effective prompts and get the most out of the technology. A university education also provides a strong knowledge base that helps them resist the temptation to let AI do all the work, he added.
Not every industry puts AI experience on the hiring checklist.
Do today’s job candidates have to know how to build an AI agent or automate a sales pitch to be in the running? Not necessarily.
Almost half of hiring decision-makers said AI experience wasn’t explicitly on their radar. Among those seeking it, a slight majority said AI-savvy applicants were easy to find. Respondents in IT and finance-related fields looked for AI skills more than their counterparts in areas such as the arts, agriculture or non-profits.
Wihbey suggested that the scarcity of candidates with the right know-how gives universities a chance to step up their game.
“There is a demand for graduates who have AI fluency and readiness,” he explained, adding that the education system isn’t entirely meeting the need.
Northeastern is already at the forefront of ensuring that its graduates are AI fluent and ready to put the technology to work. Its five-course AI minor that’s open to students without a programming background, 24 combined majors pairing AI with other subjects and AI-focused co-ops teach students to design, evaluate and apply AI tools in fields ranging from health care to the arts.
Using AI to help with schoolwork is more often a selling point than a strike against a candidate.
Hashing out a term paper outline with Claude or debugging a Python script with ChatGPT may actually strengthen an application, according to the Northeastern survey.
Around 40% of hiring decision-makers see AI use for every writing or coding assignment as a plus. Only 21% say it would discourage them from making an offer.
Hiring decision-makers want AI to give them an edge — but also worry it might squeeze them out of a job.
Compared to respondents in other job roles, those in charge of hiring were almost twice as likely to expect AI to make them more productive in the future. Around 7 in 10 also felt more AI training would be useful, the survey found.
At the same time, they were also twice as likely to say that most or all of their work could be outsourced to AI. While the survey didn’t explore what that might mean for the future employment of hiring managers, it’s not a stretch to see how they could end up out of a job.
The apparent contradictions actually reflect the new realities of the job market, Friedman pointed out. As AI reduces the overall headcount, staying relevant may mean using it beyond the routine tasks it already handles.
“AI won’t replace human judgment,” Friedman said.
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