A recent report from Gusto, a small business software platform, found that small businesses in the United States are expected to hire 974,000 new graduates during this year’s summer hiring season, up from 962,000 in 2025. The nature of the roles that these young people are being hired for are shifting with technology, however.

One of the key takeaways from the findings is that hiring has stabilized after a 29 percent decline between 2021 and 2024. Roles like software engineer, recruiter, financial analyst, and sales development representative were considered big entry-level titles in 2022, but these roles are all shrinking as a share of new graduate hiring, Gusto reports. Now, titles like AI engineer, founding engineer, field manager, and service technician are gaining in share. These are positions that are among those that AI can’t easily replace.

"The Class of 2026 — the first to spend their entire college career in a post-ChatGPT economy — appears to be adapting in real time, moving toward roles that didn’t exist as common entry points when they enrolled," Gusto says.

While starting salaries are up 23 percent from those in 2019, new graduates are still earning about six percent less than the Classes of 2019 - 2022, when earnings are adjusted for inflation, according to Gusto. The new class does demonstrate the first meaningful recovery (+2.2 percent), which may be a sign that compensation can catch up.

The report also found that young workers in AI-exposed occupations are feeling the effects of the current shift the most. Total small business employment grew 9.6 percent from January 2023 to November 2025, but employment in high AI-exposed roles grew only 3.4 percent. At the same time, workers between the ages of 22 and 28 in those roles have seen declining headcount. Older workers in those roles gained, which indicates that small business owners are favoring experienced workers who can use AI rather than entry-level hires.

As Gusto points out, AI is also lowering the cost of starting and running a business. This appears to be influencing new graduates to start their own businesses rather than seek employment from existing ones. Business applications across the country are approaching 500,000 per month, driven by a new generation of founders who are more comfortable with AI than previous generations. A separate Gusto survey found that 30 percent of entrepreneurs said that AI has made it easier to launch a company. Gen Z founders also indicated that they use the technology across more areas of their operations than any other age group. Interestingly, this is leading to a new type of entry-level role - the founding engineer, which has increased by over 390 percent. The CEO title is also one of the fastest growing titles for new graduates.

As AI continues to become a bigger part of nearly all types of businesses, these trends indicate a bright future for young people who want to run their own company.