Page 14 | Aibu for being increasingly worried about the job market?

gymboe · 2025-12-08T14:22:00+00:00

another threat of redundancy here. Business not going well and to be honest we are full steam ahead with AI. a quick search in my large town in south of England: - 5 x nhs jobs (4 of which I am not qualified for and one is really terrible pay as just three days per week) - school jobs: just three and very low pay - our high street is mostly made of charity shops and vape stores. Retail doesn’t offer what I want. - a big employer now hardly owns any office space. There are just a few jobs. I’m not qualified. I do have a degree but found myself in a specialised account/client mgmt type role. Pays around £50k. 10 years ago there were loads of these type of jobs, decent salary even if you had to start low, good career progression, hundreds of them and tonnes of temp agencies. And the nhs had loads of admin jobs. Not to mention school jobs being plentiful. where the hell have they all gone? this is a huge issue. Massive. I’m really worried.

babyproblems · 09/12/2025 07:32

HelenaWaiting · 08/12/2025 14:28

We're insane to sleepwalk into this. There are endless accounts of AI being utterly crap. Customer service turned over to bots. We shouldn't accept cut-price services run by AI which is making humans redundant. This isn't the Luddite in me speaking; I have serious concerns about what this will do to social mobility. It's time we said no. Very loudly and clearly.

I agree. I think it’s going to be massive and I mean really massive for the job industry and people’s way of living - how will people survive with no jobs?? Of course it won’t affect everyone but I honestly think it will affect most people.

Thats the initial consequences. Later on, what will happen is that people will have no spending money because they have no / reduced income. So businesses will suffer themselves eventually. People don’t realise that for en economy to work, there needs to be money doesn’t and money earnt. Without both it won’t function. So whilst cost cutting and removing jobs looks good on paper for business profits; they are assuming their revenue stream will remain the same. Possibly not true.

babyproblems · 09/12/2025 07:33

money spent and money earnt! Sorry *typo!

rainingsnoring · 09/12/2025 07:50

'What scares me is how many people are using freebie AI for everything, knowing it leads to cognitive decline'

This is one aspect of AI (and only one!) that really scares me. I'm particularly worried about the effect on school children.

CharlotteLightandDark · 09/12/2025 07:57

Ladamesansmerci · 09/12/2025 00:34

I'm a mental health nurse, a role which thankfully I can't really see how could ever be replaced by AI, but I still think it's highly concerning. I think people will get poorer and poorer if things carry on as they are. There will be a significant lack of entry level or even just normal minimum wage jobs.

And even in my role, graduates are struggling. Recruitment has been frozen in my trust for over a year due to the NHS being broke. There is a restructuring of all band 7 staff. I'm concerned it might eventually come down further to clinical staff.

I was in a B7 clinical role in NHS mental health til a couple or years ago (left to do an equivalent role at a university).

it always used to be that you could get a B7 role in pretty much any trust in the UK give or take - we would often be in a position of hiring people we weren’t 💯 sold on because there were so many to fill.

thats not the case anymore at all, hiring freezes and no jobs for newly qualified trainees have meant that it’s a totally different situation although of course demand for the services has only increased.

WingsTingle · 09/12/2025 08:00

HostaCentral · 08/12/2025 15:42

AI is here, for better or worse. But at some point there will be the backlash. Recruitment via AI is horrendous. It doesn't work for the applicant, and eventually employers will work out they are missing the best people. AI doesn't work for customer service.chst bits are useless, everyone reverts to calling, and currently there aren't enough real people to answer the phones. Offshoring to India doesn't work, the phone lines are shute and the language barrier is huge.

Consumer is King. We will go where we feel we get good service. USP's are swinging back towards personal customer contact.

AI diagnostics in some health care areas is great and proven.

I (tentatively!) agree with this.

AI is the new internet- eventually the love / threat of it ‘taking over the world’ will subside - it will become one element of working lives.

It seems sensible to attempt to get ahead of the game - take time to deeply understand AI and its place in your world and the world at large, so that you a master of it, not a slave.

I predict they will be teaching AI development in schools before long…

TinselAndSparkles · 09/12/2025 08:02

I’m concerned too. My job is safe but I hate it and am trapped in it because there’s nothing else (Civil Service Project Manager). I’m constantly working on my retirement plan because more and more people are
going to be replaced by AI but I’ve got at least 15 years until i can go 😢

MaybeNextYear2026 · 09/12/2025 08:06

banananas1999 · 08/12/2025 16:54

School jobs will go next,teachers,teaching assistants etc will be replaced by AI- already happening in some EU countries and theres a bews clip that Russia will be starting it too,especially as they have a lot of remote areas and children have to commute long distances

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I teach classes of 50 now- used to be 20. If a member of staff leaves then they just combine classes. Yr9 maths has 80 students in!

TakemedowntoPotatoCity · 09/12/2025 08:16

EarthaKittsVoice · 08/12/2025 15:15

Relevance?

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Where did she even mention a partner?

Imdunfer · 09/12/2025 08:32

theyrenotfeedingtheadults · 08/12/2025 23:05

How are they managing that? Remote ≠ worldwide. You must live in the same country as the role for tax reasons, unless you’re self-employed or have non-dom status. I’ve never seen a legitimate role that lets you just move abroad and keep working remotely.

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There's no reason why anyone should live in the same country to do a remote job. It happens all over the place, especially with companies that operate in multiple countries.

HaveYouFedTheFish · 09/12/2025 08:39

WearyExLondoner · 08/12/2025 21:31

Are they intending to stay long term, do you know?

If they’re just looking to spend a few years in a foreign country and then return to their homelands then that really isn’t good for this country. When they leave they take their skills and experience with them. They’re also more likely to be house-sharing than those who intend to stay, putting pressure on rooms for rent which would historically have been a way for UK graduates to move to a new city.

If were employing foreign graduates then ideally we need them to stay, to put economic roots into the country and to be around to train up the next generation of employees, both UK born and other foreign graduates.

If foreign graduates are the employees of choice for some employers but they go home after 5/6 or even 10 years, then they not only do they take their spending power and savings with them, but they also don’t form a coherent ladder of training and responsibility progression that would mentor new recruits at the bottom.

Plus they don’t raise kids here, so we end up with a diminishing cohort of kids relative to the number of aging adults. That’s an issue in itself.

Basically, if they go and current management reaches retirement, who trains the UK graduates to take over - or are they expected to join the exodus? In fact, does the business cease to exist at that point? So no jobs for any graduate - UK or foreign trained??

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If the poster is in London then it's always been the case that half the employees under the age of 30 are from other countries, I think.
I worked in a big investment bank near Liverpool Street station (back office department) in the early 1990s - everyone except the boss was under 30 (and the boss was early 30s) and well over 50% were non UK - obviously there was freedom of movement so lots of EU people, but also lots of Australians, Newzealanders, South Africans, a couple of Americans, and people from Asia and all over the world. Most weren't planning on staying long term - but staff turnover in that kind of industry was high anyway, although it was well paid (a lot were contractors too - the model really wasn't based on many people staying around long enough to qualify for the hypothetically amazing pension scheme which you had to be 30+ and employed for a certain length of time to join...).

Clearinguptheclutter · 09/12/2025 08:42

I’m an actual recruiter, pretty much constantly under threat of redundancy
yanbu

yes I’m worried but long term more so about my own children.

IMO AI is not so much the issue as a sluggish economy and government policy / making it literally unattractive to hire people

that all being said, there is a definite bit of an uptick for us the last couple of months.

HaveYouFedTheFish · 09/12/2025 08:45

Imdunfer · 09/12/2025 08:32

There's no reason why anyone should live in the same country to do a remote job. It happens all over the place, especially with companies that operate in multiple countries.

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This comes up a lot among people I know and there are usually restrictions on where employees can live - no restrictions is the exception, not the rule. Apart from anything you are generally tax resident where you live after a set number of days (I think 180?) which can create problems if your employer is in a different country. Health insurance is a huge issue - a family member is employed by a Spanish company and lives and works remotely in another country, which didn't raise any problems until she got pregnant and discovered that her primary, routine care should be in Spain and she is only entitled to emergency care where she lives... The NHS is residency based so shouldn't create this problem, but you have people using a system they're not paying into...

StandFirm · 09/12/2025 08:49

Hellohelga · 08/12/2025 20:38

Agree Brexit has been a disaster. Ironically there’s one area the uk is doing well - AI. The UK has a lot of pioneering AI startups ups. It’s why Trump just invested billions of dollars in UK AI in sep. The UK is good at tech generally.

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AI related start ups have been doing somewhat OK but what's a real issue is the overwhelming impact AI is having on the creative industries which are one of the leading industries (and source of soft power) we have left. It would be ridiculous to push into AI without safeguarding such a vital sector for the UK.
I would also take a damn close look at the reasons behind any of Trump's investments anywhere. Surely not for our own good.

StandFirm · 09/12/2025 08:56

Imdunfer · 08/12/2025 18:51

They will have to, or pay massive taxes, otherwise nobody will be able to afford to buy their products and services.

We are just at the start of an interim phase, which will be brutal, before this fact about the world's economy is realised.

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Will they, though? My cynical self thinks that they will come up with ever more creative ways to avoid paying into the wider society. None of the guys at the top of those AI companies have a single philanthropic fibre in them. They are also worming their way into power (look at the US) in an unprecedented way.

EasternStandard · 09/12/2025 09:03

StandFirm · 09/12/2025 08:49

AI related start ups have been doing somewhat OK but what's a real issue is the overwhelming impact AI is having on the creative industries which are one of the leading industries (and source of soft power) we have left. It would be ridiculous to push into AI without safeguarding such a vital sector for the UK.
I would also take a damn close look at the reasons behind any of Trump's investments anywhere. Surely not for our own good.

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Creative industries should be paid for a start, there was a campaign from some but the current gov haven’t listened.

Mountfuckballs · 09/12/2025 09:14

Walkaround · 09/12/2025 07:03

Because of course the entire world will accept that and there will be plenty of food, water, temperature control, shelter and harmless entertainment to go around. What could possibly go wrong? 🤔

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Who’s talking about the whole world?

StandFirm · 09/12/2025 09:17

EasternStandard · 09/12/2025 09:03

Creative industries should be paid for a start, there was a campaign from some but the current gov haven’t listened.

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If you're suggesting that there is no money in the creative sector, you are wrong. It brings £126 Billion a year to the UK economy. Are freelancers well paid and fairly treated? Probably not. Is the sector at large struggling? Of course, but it's still huge.

EasternStandard · 09/12/2025 09:22

StandFirm · 09/12/2025 09:17

If you're suggesting that there is no money in the creative sector, you are wrong. It brings £126 Billion a year to the UK economy. Are freelancers well paid and fairly treated? Probably not. Is the sector at large struggling? Of course, but it's still huge.

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No I’m not. There was a campaign for the gov to recognise the value of content used for AI, as our creative industries have value.

It’s crucial I’m not sure Labour listened or changed their legislation.

Holluschickie · 09/12/2025 09:23

May I ask: those of you with nerdy geeky kids who like to study: are you still suggesting they forgo university and train to be plumbers?

frozendaisy · 09/12/2025 09:24

MaybeNextYear2026 · 09/12/2025 08:06

I teach classes of 50 now- used to be 20. If a member of staff leaves then they just combine classes. Yr9 maths has 80 students in!

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80 is insane

theyrenotfeedingtheadults · 09/12/2025 09:24

shuggles · 08/12/2025 23:35

@PloddingAlong21 The people who will be left behind are the ones who don’t learn how to utilise the tools to make them more efficient and productive in their actual job roles.

The issue isn't AI taking jobs. If I was to explain what my job entails, people would think it's exactly the type of job that would be perfectly suited to AI. So I've tried to use AI to assist in my work, and I've quickly discovered that it's a pile of shit. It spews out garbage that's too vague and generic to be useful, and it struggles to follow simple tasks with specific instructions.

The issue is that AI has allowed people to generate slop CVs and slop cover letters to apply for thousands of jobs. So now when I go job hunting online, I have to compete with hundreds of applicants for each individual job role, because those applicants were able to quickly apply in 2 minutes by generating AI slop.

And of course, when I filter for the types of jobs I might like, I have to sift through dozens of adverts that involve testing AI systems for companies that I've never heard of. Of course, these companies never reply to any applications. More AI slop. But sadly, there's no way to filter out AI slop adverts online, so it makes it extremely difficult to find a job I might like.

So the issue isn't AI taking jobs. The issue is that the slop you have created has completely destroyed the job hunting process.

Completely agree, recruiters need to
get more savvy because it can’t continue the way it is because it’s made it a hellscape for applicants and recruiters alike.

I applied for a job recently where you had to submit a 1 minute video. Usually I wouldn’t bother but I gave it a punt and got an interview! When I had a chat with the recruiter he said they got 10 applicants because you’ll only get serious people apply whereas usually there are hundreds of unqualified applicants.

StrictlyComeRambling · 09/12/2025 09:24

Echobelly · 08/12/2025 18:06

There is one issue that might stem the relentless flow of AI, which ironically I have learned about because I am currently doing an12 month AI apprenticeship through work, which is that if you just have content being churned out by AIs working off content churned out by AIs, it degrades, just becomes nonsense as I guess there's just not enough human context. This could be a bottleneck in capability.

So companies pay for training data and build reinforcement learning loops that train models from verifiable outcomes — one of the reasons code took off so fast is that it can be at least partially verified without humans so models can self improve more effectively. What you’re alluding to is definitely a problem but not as significant as you might think.

StandFirm · 09/12/2025 09:25

EasternStandard · 09/12/2025 09:22

No I’m not. There was a campaign for the gov to recognise the value of content used for AI, as our creative industries have value.

It’s crucial I’m not sure Labour listened or changed their legislation.

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Ah yes, well, from what I can find online, I think that's ongoing and far from resolved. But I hope the government listens because not thinking through the support for AI (especially US owned tech) could be a real Trojan horse for the creative industry.

Perfect28 · 09/12/2025 09:26

Ai is going to completely change everything with work. We are in no way preparing ourselves enough.

EasternStandard · 09/12/2025 09:27

StandFirm · 09/12/2025 09:25

Ah yes, well, from what I can find online, I think that's ongoing and far from resolved. But I hope the government listens because not thinking through the support for AI (especially US owned tech) could be a real Trojan horse for the creative industry.

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Agree. We shouldn’t throw it away so readily, it’s worth a lot.