AI cut entry-level UK job postings by 32% since 2022. The advice most diaspora parents give hasn't caught up.

Entry-level job vacancies in the UK dropped 32% between November 2022 and June 2025, according to Guardian reporting on Indeed data. A King's College London study from December found that AI-exposed firms became 16.3 percentage points less likely to post new vacancies. Software engineers, data analysts, junior compliance staff: the sharpest drops. Roles requiring direct human interaction: holding.

The advice hasn't updated.

"Just get any job" was sound counsel when any job led somewhere. It's harder when the category of "any job" has narrowed, competition for what remains has intensified, and the required skills shifted faster than most families tracked.

The King's College researchers named what that costs long-term: without junior roles as training grounds, new entrants can't gain experience, and firms lose the pipeline for developing senior talent. The problem compounds.

For second-generation Nigerians navigating identity pressure and career pressure at the same time, this is the gap. Your parents aren't wrong about work ethic. They may be working from an outdated map.

Worth a conversation at home. Better now than after a degree in a disappearing field.