University Graduates Struggle to Find Office Work as Graduate Unemployment Rises

Jakarta — For several years now, artificial intelligence has been known to threaten human employment. More concerning, the technology is said to be capable of rendering university graduates unemployed for extended periods.

ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott explained that AI could drive unemployment rates among those newly graduated from university through to their mid-30s. Simultaneously, there is a possibility that most jobs will be performed by agents.

“Most work will be performed by agents. It will become a challenge for young people to distinguish themselves in a corporate environment,” he said, as reported by CNBC Indonesia on Monday (16 March 2026).

According to him, AI adoption also causes employment difficulties for those at entry-level positions, as each company strives to increase productivity.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve estimates that the unemployment rate among fresh graduates by the end of 2025 will reach 5.7%. The hidden unemployment rate stands at 42.5%, marking the highest level since 2020.

AI has indeed been cited as a reason by several companies for conducting large-scale redundancies. They justify the cuts as being related to AI tool assistance.

One such example is Block, which has reduced its workforce by nearly half, citing that AI is increasingly automating jobs. Meanwhile, Atlassian has announced the dismissal of 10% of its staff to support AI investments.

CEO of Palantir Alex Karp previously stated that he wanted to increase revenue tenfold, doing so whilst the company implements workforce reduction policies.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has also announced redundancy plans for his corporation utilising AI tools.