TL;DR

A survey by the recruiter Reed, reported by This is Money on 19 October, finds 52% of UK hiring managers believe AI is reducing job opportunities, and 36% say it is already lowering recruitment at their own organisation. The firm’s boss, James Reed, is campaigning under the slogan “back humans, tax robots” for higher taxes on companies that swap workers for AI or automation.

The same managers are using it to hire

The survey also shows how far AI has moved into recruitment itself. Screening CVs is the most common use, at 41% of hiring managers, with skills matching and drafting job adverts at 34% each. Internal administration (28%), interview scheduling (27%) and finding candidates (26%) follow. Only 17% say their organisation uses no AI in hiring at all.

Put another way, AI is now part of hiring at most of these managers’ organisations even as half of them say it is reducing openings.

The tax argument

James Reed’s case rests on cost. If AI lets businesses cut costs while employing people gets dearer, he said, “we should question whether our tax system is keeping pace with the changing world of work”. He singled out people trying to get “their first foothold in the labour market” as particularly exposed, and framed the campaign as making sure technology works for people “rather than making a generation redundant”.

The figures follow a warning from Kristalina Georgieva, head of the IMF, who opened its annual gathering in Bangkok by describing AI as “a slow-moving tsunami”, saying about 40% of jobs worldwide will eventually be “augmented, downgraded or eliminated”.

Looking forward

Reed’s numbers sit alongside other recent employer surveys on AI and headcount, including Deloitte’s latest poll of finance chiefs. Whether a robot tax gains political traction is an open question. In our view, the entry-level concern is the part employers can act on now: those leaning on AI for CV screening should check whether their filters are quietly closing the routes juniors used to come in by.