They've just graduated from university – and can't find a job. Uncertain times are coming for young, educated people.

They're young, smart, and ambitious. They're studying business administration or law, hoping to become management consultants, managers, or lawyers one day. They're doing internships and completing master's programs. But they can't find a job.

University graduates in these industries are currently facing an unusually difficult time in Switzerland. Gerd Winandi-Martin sees this phenomenon every day. He has been working at the Career Center of the University of St. Gallen (HSG) for thirteen years, a center that prepares students for career entry. Recently, he advised a highly qualified candidate from one of the HSG's top master's programs. "He had a very good CV, an impeccable letter of motivation, excellent grades, and relevant professional experience. He had everything he needed. Yet, out of 30 applications, he received 29 rejections."

Winandi-Martin found this hard to believe. But such cases are increasing. He and his team advise 1,800 students a year. And they currently hear from them every day: They're having trouble finding a job.

What Winandi-Martin observes is also being observed at other Swiss universities. Advertisements for entry-level positions on their job platforms are declining. The Swiss University Career Centers network writes on its website: "Since COVID-19, we've realized that we have absolutely no idea about the job market for our graduates."

Law, management, and business administration are all fields where it has long been the case that anyone who studies these subjects will quickly find a good job. Many young people in Switzerland still enroll in these programs every year. But that promise no longer necessarily holds true. The job market is changing dramatically. What was once considered a safe choice has become uncertain.

Why is that?

On the one hand, the difficult situation, especially for business and law students, is due to the economic situation. In times of economic uncertainty, young people just entering the job market are particularly easy to cut costs – vacant positions are either not filled, or there is a hiring freeze.

In addition, degree programs such as business administration and law typically lead to jobs that are more sensitive to economic fluctuations. Unlike a doctor in a hospital or a researcher in a laboratory, a management consultant is more likely to be hired by a company when it needs to cut costs. In addition, there are more and more people with a law or business administration degree. And with it, more competition. According to the Zurich Cantonal Employment Office, the cantonal RAV (Job Center for Employment) has recorded an increase in the number of young adults with university degrees registered in recent years.

But there's also one question that's likely to be particularly troubling university graduates right now: Is the difficult situation also due to the fact that companies are increasingly relying on generative artificial intelligence (AI)? This makes them more efficient and requires fewer people to perform the same work?

Speculation about this has been rife for months, especially in the US. In May, Dario Amodei, CEO of the tech company Anthropic, said that 50 percent of entry-level jobs would disappear in the next five years. Executives at major companies like Amazon and the bank JP Morgan Chase expect AI-related job cuts. Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, said in an interview last week that AI will replace half of all office jobs in the US.

But is there any truth to this? And does it also apply to Switzerland?

AI tools are increasingly being used in the legal industry, especially for automated research, document analysis, and contract review. Roland Köchli is a partner at the Swiss law firm epartners and chair of the Digitalization Division of the Swiss Bar Association. He observes how generative AI is being used in the firm, for example, in due diligence reviews. For these, AI models process large volumes of documents alongside human reviewers.

AI is practical for law firms, but it also presents them with a problem: lawyers usually work on an hourly basis. Köchli says that if AI makes things faster and allows a contract to be drawn up in ten minutes instead of two hours, rates will have to be lowered and other compensation models considered. "Charging the work on an hourly basis will then no longer be worthwhile."

On the other side of automation is Gordian Berger. He is the technical director of the AI ​​startup Legartis, which automates contract reviews for legal departments in medium-sized companies. It works like this: When a company needs a contract, lawyers define guidelines for the contract review. The AI ​​tool then checks the contract for compliance with these rules. It is integrated into word processing programs like Word and, similar to autocorrect, suggests improvements; employees simply click "Accept."

According to Berger, this means that lawyers no longer have to review such contracts, but rather sales staff, for example, can do so. "Together with the AI ​​tool, I too can review contracts – and I'm not a lawyer; I have a tech background."

Automation in the legal system through generative AI could therefore ensure that one no longer requires a law degree to perform all tasks. The more demanding tasks will still be performed by human specialists. The easier ones will be performed by AI.

Köchli says that tasks normally performed by younger employees are often automated. As a junior due diligence reviewer, he himself worked through thousands of lease agreements when they were still filed away in folders. Through extensive reading, he understood the different contract variants, what was done similarly, what worked well, and what didn't. This, among other things, helped him gain his experience.

This is necessary in the job, he says. Because what you learn at university is theoretical. "In lectures, facts are presented clearly. But life is chaotic."

But if AI takes over such tasks, how will young professionals gain their experience? Köchli says: "We're currently discussing this in the industry. It's a big question—and I really don't know how we'll solve it yet."

Köchli doesn't yet believe that junior lawyers will be replaced by AI. However, he does believe that AI will change legal work. "I would think twice about pursuing a career as a lawyer again today." If he were young again, he would probably work for a tech company.

AI is transforming roles not only in the legal field, but also in other industries. Data from job postings on the Indeed job platform, which was made available to the NZZ, show that the proportion of positions requiring the use of AI is increasing. And it is rising particularly sharply in sectors such as human resources, legal, sales, and accounting.

These figures refer to the German market, as Swiss data have not yet been systematically collected and evaluated. However, the Labor Office of the Canton of Zurich shared similar observations upon request. In addition to commercial office work, professions with high qualification requirements, including specialists in business administration and law, offer a relatively high application potential for AI, the office writes.

Samuel Mete of the Swiss recruitment agency Adecco writes: "Sectors with a high proportion of standardized processes are currently particularly affected." For example, in consulting firms, law firms, or investment banking, the compilation of presentations, the initial analysis of data, or the writing of draft texts are increasingly being taken over by AI tools. These are all traditionally junior tasks.

The tasks in these fields are changing, and with them the demands on career starters: The application and testing of AI tools is becoming a prerequisite. This also requires a certain level of technical understanding – and the knowledge to be able to verify the AI's results. At the same time, an analysis by the consulting firm PwC, which analyzed around one billion job advertisements worldwide , shows that for jobs in which a particularly large number of tasks can be performed with AI tools, the importance of a university degree is declining from the perspective of Swiss employers.

Students are increasingly asking themselves: Should I even continue studying, and if so, what? What else should I learn, what additional skills do I need to be able to offer? For universities, this is a wake-up call. They must rethink and prepare their students for the new demands of the job market.

The University of Basel's Faculty of Law is undergoing an ongoing reform process regarding digitalization and the importance of AI, as it stated upon request. At the HSG, the curriculum is being adapted with the goal of integrating basic AI knowledge into the curriculum. ETH Zurich, in response to a request, wrote: "Students must be prepared for future AI-supported workplaces."

Matthias Geering, communications manager at the University of Basel, addresses a crucial point: AI models can make errors. Students need to recognize these and ultimately be able to assess and evaluate the results. Therefore, they still need the knowledge they receive at university.

It's still unclear which jobs will be transformed by AI and how. What's certain, however, is that a lot is changing in the job market, especially in knowledge-based professions. And young, well-trained people are now feeling the effects.

An article from the « NZZ am Sonntag »