Every March, hundreds of thousands of job seekers organize their resumes and portfolios as recruitment season arrives. And 2026 is a year when the statement that AI is quietly but rapidly replacing positions that once required human hiring feels more real than ever. Now, with the benefits and harms of technological transition unfolding simultaneously, just transition is no longer solely the story of coal miners.
Entry-Level Positions Quietly Disappearing Every Recruitment Season
The National Data Agency’s ‘Korean Social Trends 2024’ analyzed that approximately 2.7 million domestic jobs — 10% of all jobs — can be replaced by AI. The World Economic Forum (WEF) projected that while 92 million jobs will disappear due to AI over the next five years, 170 million new jobs will be created. At first glance, this seems positive, but more important than the sum of the numbers is ‘who occupies the positions that are disappearing.’ Companies facing change prefer not to dismiss existing employees but rather not to hire new ones in the first place. According to 2025 U.S. labor market research, companies that adopted generative AI reduced new-graduate hiring by 7.7% one and a half years after adoption compared to companies that did not. In contrast, experienced hiring was relatively maintained or showed an increasing trend.
In this situation, the decline in new-graduate hiring in South Korea is even steeper. According to an analysis by the employment platform Catch, regular new-graduate job postings at large companies dropped by 43% year-on-year in 2025. In particular, the IT and telecommunications sector reduced new-graduate hiring by 67% over the same period. A situation is also emerging in which roughly half of those who passed the certified public accountant exam are effectively unemployed. This is because AI has replaced the simple repetitive tasks that first- to third-year new accountants used to handle, prompting accounting firms to reduce new hires altogether. This is not simply a job shortage but a signal that the very structure of labor market entry is changing.
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Countries That Designed the Transition
New jobs do not naturally come to those who have lost their jobs to new technology. Unless someone designs it deliberately, the benefits of labor transition will be concentrated among a few, while the costs will be borne by the many.
German labor circles, judging the phase-out of coal as central to the energy transition for carbon neutrality, launched the ‘Coal Commission’ in 2018, composed of 28 members including workers, companies, the government, and regional stakeholders. After six months of deliberation, it adopted a roadmap to phase out coal mines and coal-fired power plants by 2038. In this process, it promised social security for workers who could lose their jobs and decided to invest finances for 20 years in regions hosting coal-fired power plants for regional development.
The same principle applies in the AI transition phase. The German Metalworkers’ Union (IG Metall) identified participation, co-determination, retraining, collective agreements, and a strong social safety net as the key elements of the transition process, emphasizing that workers are not ‘objects of protection’ but ‘future skilled professionals.’ Italy has moved to proactively secure financial resources for the AI era. The Italian government allocated €30 million for employed workers at high risk of losing their jobs to AI automation and for the unemployed. Of this, €10 million is directed toward upskilling employed workers at high risk of automation replacement, and the remaining €20 million toward developing the digital capabilities of the unemployed and the economically inactive population. It is significant in that it includes not only those already unemployed but also those who are still working yet at risk.
South Korea’s response is just beginning to gain momentum. With the launch of the New Economic, Social and Labor Council on March 19, 2026, the tripartite social dialogue among labor, business, and government, which had been suspended for over a year, has resumed. The ‘Labor-Management Win-Win Committee for AI Transformation’ is scheduled to discuss labor-management cooperation models in response to the changing job environment brought about by the introduction of AI.
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Just Transition: The Conditions
Every year when the March recruitment season comes around, applicants face the question of ‘what qualifications are needed.’ But the answer to a more fundamental question still remains society’s responsibility. Only when the cost of labor transition is not borne by individuals alone, a social safety net guarantees income during the transition period, and a consensus structure is established in which business, society, and government share the costs — only then can the word ‘fair’ be placed in front. Ensuring that technological progress does not result in the profit of a few and the anxiety of the many is why ESG’s ‘S’ remains important even in the AI era.
by Editor L