PwC is trimming its graduate intake, cutting 200 entry-level positions in the U.K. as artificial intelligence and weak productivity growth reshape the workplace.
The decision reflects growing strain on Gen Z graduates, who now face far tougher conditions launching their careers than their predecessors did.
The firm’s U.K. chief, Marco Amitrano, admitted that graduate hiring is “under pressure,” with technology advances and volatile global markets weighing heavily on entry-level opportunities. PwC’s cut reduces this year’s intake to 1,300 from 1,500. For Amitrano, the shift feels personal: he began his own career more than three decades ago in an entry-level PwC role. But today’s landscape, he noted, is far less forgiving for young job seekers.
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“AI is reshaping roles, global markets remain volatile, and graduate intakes everywhere are under pressure,” Amitrano wrote in a recent LinkedIn post.
In an op-ed for The Times, quoted by Fortune, he added: “Innovation in AI is certainly reshaping roles. For now, the development of new tools and the parallel investment in skills are offsetting more serious disruption. Yet this balance may not last forever. Our research shows that job postings for AI-exposed occupations are growing at a slower pace compared to those with lower exposure—and this gap is widening.”
The pullback underscores a deeper tension within the U.K. economy. Despite promises that higher education would pave the way to stable, well-paying jobs, graduates are now struggling even to secure interviews. Entry-level hiring, once the gateway for young people into professional services, is shrinking rapidly.
The trend is accelerating across companies. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in June that AI will reduce the company’s corporate workforce in the coming years, while Salesforce’s Marc Benioff has already credited AI with allowing him to cut 4,000 jobs, reducing his support team from 9,000 staff to about 5,000.
“I need less heads,” Benioff said on The Logan Bartlett Show.
Yet, even as AI is heralded as a tool for turbocharging efficiency, the productivity gains have not yet materialized. MIT research found that 95% of AI pilots are failing. For the U.K., where productivity growth has slumped to Victorian-era levels, this is a particularly sobering reality. Amitrano himself cited weak productivity as the single biggest contributor behind lower graduate intakes at PwC this year.
“Right now, many businesses—both domestic and international—are watching and waiting,” he wrote. “Activity is improving, but it’s still far removed from the levels of investment, hiring and deal-making that we saw immediately after the pandemic.”
The cuts may extend beyond the U.K. According to documents obtained by Business Insider, PwC plans to reduce entry-level hiring in the U.S. by almost a third over the next three years. That trajectory, if mirrored across industries, risks swelling the number of NEETs—young people not in employment, education, or training—already estimated at 4 million.
Still, the AI reshuffle is not universally accepted as the endgame. Some firms are reassessing after leaning too heavily on automation. Klarna, the Swedish payments company, began rehiring humans after AI-led cuts proved counterproductive.
“As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organizing this, what you end up having is lower quality,” CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski admitted in May. “Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us.”
A Rebalanced Workforce and A Broken Ladder for Graduates
Under circumstances where AI adoption matures and companies like PwC strike the right balance between automation and human talent, analysts believe that entry-level hiring could rebound within five years. Under this scenario, firms are expected to use AI primarily to handle repetitive tasks while investing heavily in graduate training programs. That would give Gen Z graduates opportunities to work alongside AI systems rather than be displaced by them. Productivity is expected to rise more sustainably, restoring growth in hiring pipelines across professional services.
The darker scenario sees AI adoption continue to squeeze entry-level roles, with hiring freezes spreading across sectors. Analysts note that PwC’s planned U.S. cuts by nearly a third would serve as a template for the rest of the Big Four, and other industries could follow suit. This means graduates would face shrinking opportunities, swelling the ranks of NEETs already estimated at 4 million. With 95% of AI pilots still failing to deliver, the paradox would be that companies might cut humans before AI systems are truly ready to replace them, leaving productivity stagnant and a generation sidelined.
However, the outcome is still uncertain. Currently, PwC is watching productivity numbers and waiting for clearer signs of recovery. But for graduates entering the workforce, the unfavorable message is that the traditional ladder into professional careers may no longer be there when they reach for it.