IBM Plans To Triple Entry-Level Hiring in the US (bloomberg.com)
(Thursday February 12, 2026 @05:30PM (msmash)
from the encouraging-signs dept.)
- Reference: 0180783240
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/12/214250/ibm-plans-to-triple-entry-level-hiring-in-the-us
- Source link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-12/ibm-plans-to-triple-entry-level-hiring-in-the-us-in-2026
IBM said it will [1]triple entry-level hiring in the US in 2026, even as AI appears to be weighing on broader demand for early-career workers. From a report:
> While the company declined to disclose specific hiring figures, it said the expansion will be "across the board," affecting a wide range of departments. "And yes, it's for all these jobs that we're being told AI can do," said Nickle LaMoreaux, IBM's chief human resources officer, speaking at a conference this week in New York.
>
> LaMoreaux said she overhauled entry-level job descriptions for software developers and other roles to make the case internally for the recruitment push. "The entry-level jobs that you had two to three years ago, AI can do most of them," she said at Charter's Leading With AI Summit. "So, if you're going to convince your business leaders that you need to make this investment, then you need to be able to show the real value these individuals can bring now. And that has to be through totally different jobs."
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-12/ibm-plans-to-triple-entry-level-hiring-in-the-us-in-2026
> While the company declined to disclose specific hiring figures, it said the expansion will be "across the board," affecting a wide range of departments. "And yes, it's for all these jobs that we're being told AI can do," said Nickle LaMoreaux, IBM's chief human resources officer, speaking at a conference this week in New York.
>
> LaMoreaux said she overhauled entry-level job descriptions for software developers and other roles to make the case internally for the recruitment push. "The entry-level jobs that you had two to three years ago, AI can do most of them," she said at Charter's Leading With AI Summit. "So, if you're going to convince your business leaders that you need to make this investment, then you need to be able to show the real value these individuals can bring now. And that has to be through totally different jobs."
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-12/ibm-plans-to-triple-entry-level-hiring-in-the-us-in-2026
Sounds awful. (Score:2)
by Gravis Zero ( 934156 )
> Since AI tools can handle most routine coding tasks, the company’s junior software developers now spend less time on that and more time working with customers. In the HR department, entry-level staffers now spend time intervening when HR chatbots fall short, correcting output and talking to managers as needed, rather than fielding every question themselves.
It certainly sounds like IBM wants people to fix broken shit code that AI barfs out. I'm sure that won't have any native long-term consequences or anything. /s
inflexible old folks (Score:4, Insightful)
After all this talk about how the "juniors" pipeline is going to run dry, instead we see that the entry level entrance IS now a second story window, but the kids who get it are going to crush the people my age (Gen-X elder) who think they can organizational politics their way out of having to reskill.
I went through this at U.S. West, First Data, and Experian back in the late 1990s. The last one was the bitter end of my ever working for another large company. Having seen the downsizing/reengineering/rightsizing wars of the late 20th century firsthand, I don't have any trouble predicting what's going to happen in the late 2020s.
Starting a company is hard, nerve wracking work, but if I fail it's on me. No amount of money could tempt me into a Fortune 500 in this environment.