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Many students who once aimed for white-collar careers are now opting for manual professions they believe AI cannot easily replace.
Artificial intelligence’s integration into workplaces across global labour markets is triggering a surprising shift in the UK, as more young people are walking away from traditional white-collar paths and toward skilled trades.
Fears of AI-driven job losses are increasingly turning people to this unexpected countertrend. According to a recent Reuters report, many students who once aimed for white-collar careers are now opting for manual professions they believe AI cannot easily replace.
The report captured the trend through the story of Maryna Yaroshenko, an 18-year-old plumbing student in London who chose a hands-on career she believes AI won’t touch anytime soon. “No AI can do plumbing,” she told Reuters. This belief reflects a broader national sentiment, with half of UK adults worrying about AI’s impact on their jobs, and those aged 25 to 35 expressing the highest anxiety.
The concerns these students hold are reinforced by growing evidence that businesses are increasingly replacing human staff with AI systems. In the US alone, companies have cited AI in 48,414 job cuts this year, including 31,000 in October, according to the Los Angeles Times. This goes to show just how quickly this tech is being woven into corporate strategies.
Major players across industries are contributing to the movement. Tech giants like Amazon, IBM, and ServiceNow have been progressively explicit about using AI to streamline operations and lessen staffing needs. Lufthansa and ING have also credited automation and digitalisation as factors in thousands of planned job eliminations.
Some executives frame AI as a key to cost savings, with ServiceNow’s CEO even describing AI agents as workers who “don’t need any lunch” and carry no healthcare costs. Yet analysts note that AI can also serve as a convenient justification for cuts driven by factors such as overexpansion or economic uncertainty.
Still, the scale and timing of AI-linked layoffs show how deeply integrated AI and automation are becoming in workforce restructuring strategies. This is especially true for roles a model could easily execute, often involving repetitive, administrative, or high-volume tasks.
Academic research from the UK shows similar patterns, with a major King’s College London study finding that companies whose workforces were highly exposed to AI cut jobs by 4.5% on average between 2021 and 2025, with junior roles shrinking by 5.8%. High-paying firms experienced even sharper shifts, with workforce declines of 9.6% and significantly reduced hiring intentions. Job postings for technical roles such as software engineers and data analysts saw some of the steepest declines.
The long-term picture in the UK is mixed and complex. On one hand, a major report from the National Foundation for Educational Research warns that AI and automation could wipe out up to 3 million low-skilled jobs by 2035, with trades, machine operations, and administrative jobs among the most vulnerable. At the same time, the report predicts that overall employment will grow, but mostly in professional, higher-skilled roles.
That imbalance could create a significant challenge, as workers who lose their jobs may struggle to transition into the new, higher-skilled ones being created. And as entry-level jobs shrink and junior roles erode, even these industries may find it harder to train future talent.
Meanwhile, the King’s College research found sectors like sales and interpersonal, customer-facing roles were more resilient, showing a slight uptick in job postings.
But for now, the mismatch and uncertainty surrounding the long term help explain why more young people are opting to reconsider college degrees in favour of hands-on careers, especially given universities’ rising costs.
Considering all of this context, it’s easy to see why there’s renewed interest in skilled trades. Physical jobs, roles that require on-site conditions, and positions that involve practical complexity are difficult to automate, so for young people considering factors like debt, job security, and the rapid pace of AI’s technological change, the trades now look like a safer bet than many desk jobs that were once considered the stable choice.
For now, students like Yaroshenko reflect an interesting trend of the AI era: in a labour market transformed by intelligent machines, the most future-proof careers may be those that still require a human element.
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Madeline is a content writer specializing in copywriting and content creation. After studying Art and earning her BFA in Creative Writing at Salisbury University she applied her knowledge of writing and design to develop creative and influential copy. She has since formed her business, Clarke Content, LLC, through which she produces entertaining, informational content and represents companies with professionalism and taste.
