As another graduation season comes to a close and a new cohort of young people start their ambitions to set foot into the working world, it seems a great time to talk about the current state of the job market for entry-level candidates. Entry-level jobs are marketed as being the natural first step after graduation for those looking to find their first full-time corporate job post education. But over the years, it has felt as though the requirements being laid out by employers for entry level jobs doesn’t match the idea that this is many people’s first time looking for a job.
StandOut CV (2024) analysed 17,815 job adverts for 43 popular entry-level jobs, using LinkedIn’s job board ‘entry-level’ filtering to find out how common it is for entry-level jobs to ask for professional experience. They found that on average, 51.3% of ‘entry-level jobs’ required prior working experience which amounts to an average of 2.7 years of experience. This alone sums up how misleading the title of ‘entry-level jobs’ appears to be today. It also spotlights a fraction of the bigger unravelling issue of outdated workplace systems and errors in hiring practices which overhangs the modern working world.
The first question then is what is the cause of this rising expectation in the skillset of an entry level job. This can be attributed to many different factors including cuts in funding, limited resources, greater demand than supply, new technology and the prevalence of paid internships. ‘Internships are now the entry level’ says Alan Seals, an associate professor of economics at Auburn University, quoted by Kate Morgan in a 2021 BBC Article on why inexperienced workers can’t get entry-level jobs. This has rippling effects on entry-level workers. Companies are able to save money by hiring interns to do the work they would have previously designated to entry-level employees. Companies can get away with paying interns less than they would be required to pay junior level entry staff due to the less-specialised skillset and temporary nature of internships. What is notably alerting then is the fact that despite having raised entry-level requirements, asking for experience and proficiency in particular programming and apps, many entry-level jobs still only offer minimal London Living Wage salaries for their entry level jobs. This means they are wanting higher qualified and greater performance from their entry-level workers whilst paying them much less.
Internships evolving to mimic entry-level jobs has further social implications. The rise in internships would seem to be an ideal vehicle for individuals to gain the required experience needed for entry level but the opportunity and access to get an internship is in itself a challenging task. One that is harder for some than others. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds are not equipped with opportunities to build their CV throughout school so when they go to apply for internships they fall short. As a result, they won’t even be able to compete for the entry-level roles since competition is already high and having internship experience is not even abnormal, it is in fact a fundamental expectation for many hirers.
The increasing gap between employers expectations and qualifications of young people reflects the need for change in hiring processes and workplace systems. Companies need to rediscover the benefits of investing in their workers and move away from the on-size-fits all systems for categorising job applicants. We encourage re-evaluating what skills a job really requires and broadening the definition of what is considered relevant experience.