Citi Foundation putting $25M toward tackling unemployment and AI labor disruptions

NEW YORK– NEW YORK (AP) — Young job seekers, facing a rapidly changing job market, are having a tough time.

In the United States, the unemployment rate for graduates aged 22 to 27 is the highest in a dozen years, outside of the pandemic. Companies are hesitant to recruit staff in such an uncertain economic context. The hiring crisis is particularly hitting professions such as information technology, which employ more college graduates, creating nightmare job searches for the dwindling number of those finishing college. Not to mention fears that artificial intelligence will replace entry-level positions.

For example, the Citi Foundation has identified youth employability as the theme of its $25 million Global Innovation Challenge this year. The banking group’s philanthropic arm is donating half a million dollars to each of 50 groups around the world that provide digital skills, technical training and career guidance to low-income youth.

“What we want to do is make sure that young people are as prepared as possible to find employment in a world that is changing very quickly,” said Ed Skyler, Citi’s head of corporate services and public affairs.

Employer feedback suggested to Citi that early-career candidates lacked the technical skills needed for roles many had long been preparing to fill, highlighting the need for continuing professional development and the importance of soft skills.

Skyler highlighted the recent World Economic Forum survey of more than 1,000 companies that together employ millions of people. Skills gaps are seen as the biggest barrier to business transformation over the next five years. Two-thirds of respondents said they planned to hire people with specific AI skills, and 40% of them planned to eliminate jobs that AI could fill.

Some Citi grant recipients are responding by teaching people how to get AI chatbots to do work that can be automated. But Skyler stressed that it was just as important for Citi to fund efforts to impart the qualities that AI lacks, such as teamwork, empathy, judgment and communication.

“This is not a one-size-fits-all effort where we think every young person should be able to code or interact with AI,” Skyler said. “What is consistent across all programs is that we want to develop soft skills. »

Among the winners is NPower, a national nonprofit that seeks to improve economic opportunities in underinvested communities by making digital careers more accessible. Most of their students are young adults aged 18-26.

Robert Vaughn, NPower’s chief innovation officer, said the Citi grant would at least double the available spots in a program aimed at “green students” without a technical background and often without a college degree.

Given the tech industry’s ever-changing requirements for skills and certifications, he said, candidates must demonstrate broad capabilities in both cloud computing and artificial intelligence, as well as project management and emotional intelligence.

While some entry-level positions are being automated and outsourced, Vaughn said companies aren’t necessarily looking for college degrees and hard skills, but rather some comfort with AI and soft skills.

“It’s now more about being able to be more than just an isolated, siled technician,” he said. “You really have to be a customer service person.”

Per Scholas, a tuition-free technology training nonprofit, is another of the beneficiaries announced Tuesday. Caitlyn Brazill, its president, said the funds will help develop the careers of approximately 600 young adults in Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Chicago and the greater Washington, DC, area.

To keep her courses relevant, she spends a lot of time strategizing with small and large businesses. Citi’s focus on youth employability is particularly important, she said, because she often hears that productivity gains from AI have forced companies to rethink entry-level roles.

Dwindling early-career opportunities have forced workforce development nonprofits like his to provide enough hands-on training to land jobs that previously would have required much more experience.

“But if there’s no lower rung on the ladder, it’s really hard to jump, isn’t it?” » said Brazill.

She warned that failing to develop new career paths could harm the economy in the long term by preventing young people from accessing high-growth careers.

Martha Ross, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Citi was certainly right to focus on the job market disruption caused by technology. But she said the scale of the disruption was “too great for philanthropy alone.”

“We haven’t handled previous moves very well because of automation,” Ross said. “We left a lot of people behind. And now we have to decide whether we’re going to repeat that or not.”

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