Young adults dread AI job cuts while landing the $177k roles

A majority of US adults under 30 now say they feel more concerned than excited about artificial intelligence in daily life, the first time that threshold has been crossed since Pew Research Center began tracking the question. The June 2026 survey of 3,488 adults puts the share at 55 percent, up from 39 percent in 2024, while overall American concern sits at 52 percent.

At the same moment LinkedIn data shows AI engineering roles paying roughly double ordinary jobs and drawing heavily from millennials and Gen Z. The gap between dread and the narrow high-pay pipeline is the story the numbers tell.

The first majority under 30 crosses into concern

Pew’s short read published August 18 lays out the shift in plain tables. In 2021 only 31 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds felt more concerned than excited. By 2024 it was 39 percent. In the new survey it reached 55 percent of adults under 30 more concerned. Excitement in that group fell from 25 percent in 2021 to 11 percent now.

Other age bands sit nearby: 51 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds, 47 percent of those 50-64, and 59 percent of adults 65 and older also report more concern than excitement. Roughly one in ten Americans overall feel more excited; about a third feel both equally.

Source: Pew Research Center survey conducted June 22-28, 2026. Equal concern/excitement and non-answers omitted from some rows.

The climb for the youngest adults has been steadier and later than for older groups, whose big jump came earlier in the decade.

Chatbots spread while the mood turns

Usage tells a different story from sentiment. A separate Pew survey of 5,119 adults in February 2026 found about half of US adults now use AI chatbots, up from roughly a third in 2024. About a quarter use them daily. ChatGPT reaches 44 percent of adults; Gemini 24 percent; Copilot 17 percent.

Younger adults lead adoption. Majorities under 50 report using ChatGPT. Search and work tasks top the list of uses; emotional support registers for about one in ten. Yet the same younger cohort is the most likely to say AI will have a negative effect on society and on them personally over the next 20 years.

• 49% of adults have ever used an AI chatbot
• 24% use one daily or more often
• 42% use chatbots to search for information
• 38% of employed adults use them for work tasks

The tools are already ordinary. The expectations attached to them are not.

Seventy-one percent see fewer jobs ahead

Job loss sits at the center of the worry. Seventy-one percent of US adults now believe AI will lead to fewer jobs in the country over the next two decades, up from 64 percent in 2024. Only 5 percent expect more jobs. Among adults under 30 the share expecting fewer jobs jumped from 61 percent to 73 percent. That puts them level with 30- to 64-year-olds; adults 65 and older sit a bit lower at 63 percent.

Pew notes that job loss was already a top reason for concern when it first asked about AI. The belief has simply become more widespread, and the youngest adults have closed the gap with everyone else.

The $177,000 postings that keep growing

While the public expects contraction, the specialized AI hiring market is expanding fast. LinkedIn research published the same week as the Pew short read finds that AI job postings have roughly doubled since 2023. The typical AI posting lists about $177,000 in compensation, more than double the $80,000 typical for non-AI roles.

AI Engineer has become the most common AI title on the platform, overtaking Machine Learning Engineer. Forward Deployed Engineer ranks high. VP of AI postings have risen roughly sixfold. Median pay figures circulating with the report include Head of AI around $236,000, Director of AI $229,000, Member of Technical Staff $223,000, and AI Engineer roles in the mid-to-high $100,000s.

LinkedIn defines these as AI engineering and technology-building roles. Gen Z workers make up more than two-thirds of hires for certain individual-contributor titles; millennials dominate head-of-AI hiring.

Who gets in and who stays out

Access is uneven. Women accounted for just 26 percent of US AI hires in 2025 versus half of non-AI hires. Representation falls further at the top: 13 percent of C-suite AI leadership roles across 27 countries. Ninety-one percent of AI workers hold at least a bachelor’s degree; the share tops 95 percent in many of the best-paid titles.

The same generation that reports the highest job-loss fears is therefore split. A thin slice of millennials and Gen Z with the right technical credentials and networks capture pay packages that include equity and RSUs rarely seen outside tech. Everyone else faces the broader labor market the survey respondents are describing.

That split echoes patterns already visible abroad. Research on youth job losses under AI seniority bias in Korea showed younger workers losing ground while older cohorts held or gained roles, a reminder that age and experience interact with automation in different ways by country and industry.

Billions keep flowing into the buildout

Tech companies have spent more than $1 trillion on AI projects and infrastructure in roughly three years, with more planned. Nvidia’s market value multiplied several times on chip demand. Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle and others continue large capital programs. Global AI-related investment is projected by some bank forecasts to exceed $1 trillion in 2026 alone.

The financing often loops: chip makers invest in or lend to model builders who then buy more chips and cloud capacity. Shareholders push for faster returns. Policymakers talk about sharing gains. Executives keep arguing that productivity will lift businesses and consumers. The public survey numbers show the argument has not settled nerves, especially among people who will spend the longest stretch of their working lives under the new tools.

Power and capacity questions are already rewriting deals. Coverage of data-centre demand and capacity deals under AI price cuts shows how infrastructure costs and electricity needs are becoming central constraints even as model prices fall.

The entry-level squeeze the percentages miss

Aggregate employment data still show little broad AI-driven unemployment. Several economists point to that fact. Apollo’s Torsten Slok has argued there is zero clear evidence of net job destruction so far and that firms are hiring AI specialists. Other analyses find modest or temporary effects overall.

Yet targeted work on young workers tells a sharper story. Stanford’s SIEPR brief notes rising unemployment among recent graduates and evidence that AI is dampening demand for new hires in exposed white-collar roles. A paper by Brynjolfsson, Chandar and Chen documents declines in employment for early-career workers in AI-exposed occupations such as software developers and customer service since late 2022. They call the youngest workers the canaries.

Junior tasks that once trained new graduates (research, drafting, basic analysis, coding support) are exactly the work large language models handle well. The high-pay AI builder roles require skills and portfolios that most graduates do not yet have. The result is a labor market that feels like simultaneous boom and freeze depending on which door you stand in front of.

I don’t think society is ready for the disruption that is coming as a result of educated, civically engaged, middle class 22-35 year olds experiencing the brunt of the impact of AI.

That line, from an earlier high-engagement post by Alexander McCoy on X, captures a sentiment that surfaces repeatedly in replies and commentary around the Pew numbers: the sense that the traditional degree-to-stable-job path is eroding for the very group that invested most in it, while the systems replacing pieces of the work were trained on similar output.

Pew’s own earlier work already showed adults under 30 more likely than older groups to say AI will hurt creativity and human connection. The new job numbers simply add the economic layer.

Frequently Asked Questions

What exact share of adults under 30 feel more concerned than excited about AI?

In the June 22-28 2026 Pew survey, 55 percent of US adults ages 18-29 said the increased use of AI in daily life makes them more concerned than excited. That is the first majority reading for the group; 11 percent said more excited and roughly a third said equally concerned and excited.

How many people did Pew survey for the 2026 AI concern findings?

The core numbers on concern and jobs come from a survey of 3,488 US adults who are members of Pew’s American Trends Panel, conducted June 22-28 2026. A separate February 2026 survey of 5,119 adults supplied the chatbot usage figures.

How much have AI job postings grown and what do they pay?

LinkedIn reports that AI job postings in the US have roughly doubled since 2023. The typical posting lists about $177,000 in compensation compared with about $80,000 for a non-AI role. Growth accelerated sharply between 2024 and 2025.

Do most Americans expect AI to create or destroy jobs over 20 years?

Seventy-one percent expect fewer jobs, 5 percent expect more jobs, 10 percent expect little difference, and the rest are unsure. The fewer-jobs share rose from 64 percent in 2024, with the steepest rise among adults under 30.

Are young adults using AI tools even while they worry about them?

Yes. Younger adults lead chatbot adoption; majorities under 50 report using ChatGPT. About half of all adults have used a chatbot and a quarter use one daily, yet adults under 30 remain the most likely to predict negative personal and societal effects.

The June numbers freeze one moment in a fast-moving market. Concern is up, specialized pay is high, and the doors into those roles remain narrow. That is the combination young adults are living with right now.