April 01, 2026
Busting the AI Youth Unemployment Myth
The first chart below compares the unemployment rate for the entire US population with the unemployment rate for people ages 20 to 24. It does not show any sign that unemployment among younger workers is structurally higher because of AI.
Similarly, the second chart shows the unemployment rate for US college graduates ages 22 to 27. The unemployment rate has increased for men, but it has recently converged toward the unemployment rate for women. For women, since ChatGPT was released, the unemployment rate has been moving lower, and more recently it has increased slightly again.
The bottom line is that there is no sign that AI is increasing unemployment among younger workers, and there is also no sign that young people or recent college graduates are having a harder time finding jobs at the moment than other demographics.
Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Macrobond, Apollo Chief Economist
Sources: BLS, Apollo Chief Economist