Special · Entry-level hiring

Are companies really buying AI tokens instead of hiring juniors? 10.41 million Korean job posts show developer experience demands rising to 5.18 years

"I had to use AI, so I did, and if you use it well and build a system, your own job gets replaced. The system stays." That comment, under the YouTube upload of MBC's 'PD Note' episode "The AI Dilemma, Part 2: The Case of the Missing New Hires," drew 225 likes. The episode, which aired Oct 20, passed 390,000 views in two days, and a 10-minute cut passed 180,000. The show reported that at large companies people are saying "give the AI more tokens rather than hire a new grad." To see whether AI is really erasing entry-level jobs, we read the full analysis of 10.41 million Korean job postings the producers released with data research team Underscore.

1. "Give the AI more tokens instead of hiring a junior": what the show heard

   Per Bizenter, the show reported that hiring is shifting as AI takes over junior basics like research and report writing. A manager at a large company works with five AI agents instead of a new hire, and a 10-year lawyer now handles his juniors' work himself with AI. Per bnt News, a recruiting consultant said hiring freezes for new grads are spreading at big companies. The show met a certified public accountant who passed the exam and still couldn't find a job, and an applicant with a perfect TOEIC score and internships rejected by dozens of firms.

2. 10.41 million posts analyzed: entry-level share of developer postings fell from 37.1% to 26.8%

   Underscore analyzed 10,413,271 postings from 434,688 companies on a major Korean job platform between July 2019 and January 2025. Per the report, the share of developer postings open to new grads fell from 37.1% in 2022 to 26.8% in 2024, down 10.3 points. Monthly entry-level developer postings in 2024 were 43% below the 2022 average. Over the same period the entry-level share for blue-collar postings fell just 2.6 points.

3. Required experience for developers rose from 3.73 to 5.18 years, more in jobs AI does well

   Developer postings asked for about 3.73 years of experience on average through summer 2022, rising after ChatGPT's launch to 5.18 years by January 2025. The researchers scored 1,920 job keywords for "AI exposure." Per Newsen, low-exposure jobs like simple production and nursing aides saw required experience rise 0.07 years, while high-exposure jobs like app development and bookkeeping rose 0.72 years (about 8.6 months). Comparing postings from the same company in the same month, one standard deviation more exposure meant 0.073 more years required, and 0.055 years even excluding IT jobs and IT companies.

4. Sales and design narrowed too, with IT infrastructure's entry-level share down 13.8 points

   Per the report, from 2022 to 2024 the entry-level share fell 13.8 points in IT infrastructure, 12.7 in physical design such as interiors and fashion, 9.7 in sales and 7.9 in digital design. In IT infrastructure, physical design, marketing and sales, experienced postings grew while only entry-level ones shrank. Backend development scored 0.87 on AI exposure, higher than 93% of all postings; bookkeeping scored 0.78 and simple production work 0.08.

5. The counterpoint: the decline started before ChatGPT

   The researchers don't pin it on AI alone. Entry-level developer postings began falling in summer 2022, before ChatGPT's November launch, and overlapped with rate hikes by the Bank of Korea (August 2021) and the Fed (March 2022) and a venture funding slump. The report says it is "tricky to clearly separate how much is the business cycle and how much is AI." Relative to blue-collar jobs, only developers (-33.5%) and digital design (-20.6%) saw statistically significant entry-level declines, and experienced postings showed no significant difference in any group. Research from the New York Fed and others also finds declines began before ChatGPT.

6. "Startup funding dried up" doesn't explain it: tech firms -47%, non-tech -31%

   The idea that developer hiring fell because of the startup funding slump and tech firms' cash crunch isn't supported by the data. Versus 2022, entry-level developer postings fell 47% at tech firms like Naver and Kakao and 31% at non-tech firms such as builders. Relative to blue-collar jobs, that's -48% for tech and -24% for non-tech. The researchers said rate hikes, the pandemic hiring boom, company traits and skill levels didn't explain the rise in required experience.

7. "Passing the CPA exam used to mean a neighborhood party": comments on a 390,000-view video

   On the full episode, "in the end, if you don't use AI you fall behind, so you can't not use it" drew 190 likes. On the 10-minute cut, viewers wrote "passing the CPA exam used to mean a neighborhood party, now it just means an overqualified job seeker" (141 likes) and "civil service jobs surged during the IMF crisis, they'll surge again" (46). "It's not just accountants, IT got wrecked" drew 72 likes.

8. Japan trains non-major new hires, China funds startups

   The show reported from Korea, China and Japan over four months. Per bnt News, one Japanese IT company actively hires new grads with no programming background and trains them alongside senior staff, while Shanghai gives young founders office space, housing and computing resources. In Korea, hundreds compete for spots in clubs that prep for AI aptitude tests, and expensive AI job-prep courses have appeared. Producer Kang Hyun-wook said job-seeking young people face a double burden: "the door to entry-level hiring has narrowed while more experience is demanded."

9. 54% of Korean executives expect job cuts within three years, and even AI makers hire fewer juniors

   Other surveys point the same way. Per the Chosun Ilbo on Oct 22, a survey of about 10,000 executives in eight countries by Stanford's Nick Bloom, the Bank of Korea's Oh Sam-il and others found Korean companies' AI adoption at 89%, second only to the US (95%). 54% of Korean executives expect AI to cut jobs over the next three years, versus 28% in the other seven countries. Anthropic also reported on Oct 16 that the junior share of its technical hires fell from 27% in early 2025 to 9%.