IBM is tripling the number of Gen Z entry-level jobs after finding the limits of AI adoption

[usonian]

https://fortune.com/2026/02/13/tech-giant-ibm-tripling-gen-z-entry-level-hiring-according-to-chro-rewriting-jobs-ai-era/
Archived: https://archive.is/BRv7X

How do you spell FAFO in IBM-speak?

The job market has been a sore subject for Gen Z. The unemployment rate among young college grads sits at 5.6%, hovering near its highest level in more than a decade outside the pandemic. Meanwhile, prominent executives—from Anthropic’s Dario Amodei to Ford’s Jim Farley—have warned that artificial intelligence will slash corporate entry-level jobs.

But some companies are realizing that cutting young workers out of the pipeline isn’t a sustainable long-term strategy. $240 billion tech giant IBM just revealed it’s ramping up hiring of Gen Z—not down.

“The companies three to five years from now that are going to be the most successful are those companies that doubled down on entry-level hiring in this environment,” Nickle LaMoreaux, IBM’s chief human resources officer, said this week.

“We are tripling our entry-level hiring, and yes, that is for software developers and all these jobs we’re being told AI can do.”

more at the link(s) above.

Not the IBM of 1937, in which the IBM Songbook was printed.

How about this one? "Selling I.B.M." written for the tune "Singing in the Rain" (1)

Selling IBM, we're selling I. B. M., What a glorious feeling, the world is our friend,
We're Watson's great crew, we're loyal and true; We're proud of our job and we never feel blue.
We sell our whole line, we're there every time,
To chase away gloom with our products so fine,
We're always in trim, we work with a vim,
We're selling, just selling, I. B. M.

Or this one: (2)

We don’t pretend we’re gay.
We always feel that way,
Because we’re filling the world with sunshine.
With I.B.M. machines,
We’ve got the finest means,
For brightly painting the clouds with sunshine.



(1) https://www.businessinsider.com/ibms-cult-like-songbook-from-1937-2014-8?op=1
(2) https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/08/tripping-through-ibms-astonishingly-insane-1937-corporate-songbook/

[Prairie Gates]

1. AI is garbage

[Amishman]

8. As someone who works in software development, you should be scared.

coding and analysis tasks that were completely impossible for AI two years ago are suddenly doable using AI with some handholding and verification.

Tasks that were a stretch two years ago are easy today.

The releases earlier this month of the newest versions of Claude and ChatGPT are massive leaps from where they were previously. I'm flat out rattled, and trying to come up with contingency plans if / when my job not only goes away, but the entire white collar labor market is imploded. I've been forced to completely reevaluate how far I think AI job loss can go and how quickly it might happen.

This is absolutely getting scary what the cutting edge AI tools can do.

It's not just tech jobs. Accounting, finance, general administration, marketing - just about any job with a standard common tasks or basic analysis done on a computer - you are in serious trouble in the next two years. These latest advances have firmly changed my mind to when - not if - it's happening. The only factor that might slow it down is the cost and effort of setup and implementation (integrating AI tools with a company's existing processes and data).

[Shermann]

2. AI can't be used to create anything the developer using it couldn't do themselves.

At least not consistently or reliably. With a lot of oversight and intervening it can speed up certain software development tasks, with certain tradeoffs in quality and maintainability.

I use AI as a software developer every day and that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

[sakabatou]

3. IMO,, all AI is cursed in some way or form.

There is one, however, I personally enjoy.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Would be nice if "$240 billion " IBM could give its retirees a little cost-of-living pension adjustment. I've been

retired from them for 23 years and they haven't kicked in a single penny for a raise. IBM used to give cost-of-living increases to both its employees and retirees on a yearly basis.

[cojoel]

5. There will have to be some kind of economic blowback

Companies have spent billions of dollars building up infrastructure on hyped promises that are proving for more difficult to deliver than what was promised. And some of these high-flying dorks are going to crash.

[Amishman]

9. The dot com crash didn't spell the end of ecommerce and the internet

Some stock prices crashing and some individual companies going belly up isn't going to stop what's coming.

A few years ago we were laughing at the bad hands and extra fingers of AI image generation.

Now it can crank out video that is difficult to distinguish from reality.

The tech will keep improving, and isn't going away.

[jfz9580m]

6. Happy Valentine's Day usonian

[maxrandb]

7. I didn't even know IBM still existed

They built the cash registers my grocery store used in the 70's.

We had those manual ones, that would clang and ring as the numbers would roll around. Going electric digital with IBM was like Jetson level stuff.

BTW - Where is my flying car???!!!