YouTube Offers Voluntary Buyouts to Employees, Pay Drop, & Fewer Entry-Level Jobs

Additional Resources

• Korn Ferry Research Unveils Top Talent Acquisition Trends Shaping 2026
• JPMorganChase Income Report
• YouTube Offers Voluntary Buyouts as it Gets Set for AI Frontier
• Gartner Identifies Four Trends Talent Management Leaders Should Prepare for in 2026

Transcript

Pete Newsome: 0:00

Today’s job market headlines provide insight into where work is heading over the next year. JP Morgan Chase reveals income growth is stalled. YouTube’s voluntary buyouts show how AI is quietly rewriting job descriptions in tech, and Gartner tells us what they say are the four biggest trends HR leaders must prepare for. But first, what if your next coworker isn’t a person, but an AI agent with its own HR record? If that sounds like science fiction, it’s not. It’s in Corn Ferry’s forecast for 2026. Their annual talent acquisition trends report showed 84% of hiring leaders plan to use AI next year, while also warning that the rush to automate could create a future leadership pipeline crisis. The report found that 52% of leaders intend to add AI agents to their teams.

0:48

So roughly half. And that’s not a surprise. But what is a surprise to me, a shock, is that some intend to create HR records for the AI agents. That’s just bizarre. I don’t get it at all. But at the same time, they’re saying that there aren’t enough leaders who possess the skills needed to manage human AI collaboration effectively. Only 11% of the survey respondents said their executives are prepared to lead through the AI transition. Now that is to be expected, isn’t it? We’re all living through this experiment in real time. So who is qualified to manage AI human collaboration? I mean, we are making it up as we go. And if anyone says otherwise, I would question their sanity. So we’ll have to see how that plays out. But what’s I found probably most interesting in the survey is that it showed 43% of companies plan to replace roles with AI. Let me say that again. 43% of companies are going to replace positions with AI. So for anyone who still thinks that’s not happening, it is happening, it has happened, and it’s only going to happen on an increasing basis.

1:59

Now, the roles primarily are back office and operations and entry-level jobs. And Cornferry’s take on that is that there’s temporary cost savings that you’re going to achieve, but by not hiring young workers, there’s going to be a long-term cost of losing tomorrow’s managers and directors before they even start. Now, I understand that logic, but my belief is that AI will reduce all levels of positions equally, or at least relatively. So since there will be fewer entry-level positions, and we know that’s happening, well, we’re going to need fewer people to manage them and lead them. So that is a trend that has left the station. I don’t see that uh turning around at this point. But despite AI’s prominence, the survey indicated that human skills remain critical. Nearly 73% of talent leaders rank critical thinking as their top hiring priority. Nearly every survey stresses that these days.

2:57

So it’s almost a contradiction, and like whether it’s a company announcing changes and re-orgs or surveys where AI is super important, AI is happening, AI’s taking jobs, but human skills are more important now than ever. I I don’t know. I mean, I think that’s interesting to say the least, and yes, somewhat of a contradiction. So, but that’s what the survey is telling us. In the next story, here’s a stat that should catch the attention of everyone who was early in their career. According to new data from the JP Morgan Chase Institute, real income growth in 2025 is at its lowest level in a decade, and young workers are feeling it the most. Here’s what they found after analyzing millions of anonymized pay deposits.

3:43

First, real income growth weakened through 2025, reaching its lowest sustained pace since the early 2010s. For prime age workers, which is everyone who’s 25 to 54, real income growth sits around 2%. There was a big post-COVID increase, but then an even bigger dip, and now it’s trending down again as the year goes on. Also, the decline in income growth is most pronounced among young workers in the 25 to 29 age group. The report attributes this to a softer labor market, slow hiring, and low quit rates, which makes job switching difficult. And job switching is typically what young professionals rely on to advance their careers and increase their earnings. What this data really tells us is there’s a less dynamic job market right now, and that doesn’t just slow down pay, it slows down potential, compounding other financial pressures like housing and slower wealth accumulation.

4:41

And unfortunately, young people missed the bull market that we’ve been in for the past decade. So it’s really a compounding effect that’s that’s hurting young professionals right now. And the institute warns that reduced mobility and weaker early career wage growth could have lasting implications. And I think that’s true. I mean, if you can’t have that success early, you’re just gonna be behind what has been the traditional curve. And it just seems to me that young people have had had it really rough. And as a father of four, I’m seeing this play out firsthand. And I think we can all agree they’re due for a change in luck. But my advice is for anyone young, don’t just wait for the market to improve. We don’t know when that’s gonna happen. Build your skills, expand your network, and as important as anything, right now, perhaps most important, stay ahead of the curve with AI.

5:31

Next up, YouTube’s latest reorganization might sound routine until you realize it’s fueled by AI and could quietly reshape thousands of jobs. In an internal memo linked to the HR Digest, CEO Neil Mohan told employees that the next frontier for YouTube is AI. The company is launching voluntary buyouts for U.S. staff as part of a broader restructure that creates three new product divisions: viewer, creator, and community, and subscription. Mohan insists there are no role eliminations. They always say that, don’t they? But the buyout suggests YouTube wants to reduce headcount as it reallocates resources towards AI-driven products. Now this move comes as Google, who is of course YouTube’s parent company, doubles down on AI through Gemini and other tools. And my take is that this is just the new blueprint for big tech. Lead with innovation, do lots of great things, and then follow up with a reorganization, always claiming that you’re not really getting rid of people, you’re just shuffling them around. Now, the voluntary buyouts are also a bit of a prelude to automation, in some ways similar to return to office.

6:40

So if I’m an employee of one of these massive companies, really any massive company right now, I’d have two predominant thoughts. First, I’m just a number, and I’ll always just be a number. There’s just no way around that. But if I’m going to be a number, I better be one who’s knee-deep in implementing and leveraging AI for the company, not in a role that is likely to be replaced by it. So very different depending on which side of that equation you’re on. And in today’s final headline, there are four trends talent leaders must prepare for in 2026. This is according to Gartner. Now, I question these, so let’s go through them one at a time. First, entry-level roles are disappearing, putting more pressure on HR to rebuild the early career pipeline. Well, I don’t know why we need more pressure on HR to build a pipeline that’s disappearing. Now you can change that if you want to, and in many cases, I think companies should, but isn’t that old news at this point?

7:39

I mean, we know that early career opportunities have diminished over the past year, maybe two years. So that is not a trend for 2026 or me. Um, we don’t have to wait to see if that’s going to happen. Number two, HR will turn one-third of its recruiting inward, focusing on internal mobility and redeployment. Now, I fully agree that employees will need to be moved around and redeployed if possible, but that’s to accommodate AI displacement. So let’s keep in mind this is the same organization that just recently, maybe even last week, said that AI will only replace 1% of jobs over the next few years.

8:20

So, why do you need internal mobility and moving employees around if AI is not replacing the jobs? Wouldn’t that be the catalyst for it? They didn’t seem to say why that’s going to be necessary, just that it is. So a bit of a contradiction there. I would expect they would will walk back at some point or at least revise their statement that AI is only expected to replace 1% of jobs. I think it was over the next five years. But number three, regrettable retention. I like that phrase. Keeping low-performing employees will become the top productivity barrier. But again, hasn’t that always been a top productivity barrier? I mean, that’s not new. Keeping employees that are dragging the organization down is not a good thing.

9:04

That’s news to no one. Number four, performance management. Performance management will become both less and more human as AI automates reviews, but managers must still bring empathy and judgment. That sounds like more of the same to me. Yes, we’re going to use more AI, but people are so much more important as a result. I question that. I do think it’s contradictory. Um, but yes, I do agree that there are certain things that AI just can’t replicate that only a human can bring. And so let’s hope that we can hold on to that as long as possible.

9:40

So there you go. Gartner’s new or maybe not so new, things that AHR leaders need to prepare for in 2026. Sometimes when I read these things, I just think organizations are making things up to say because they want the content, but that’s where we are. And before we close, here’s your fun fact today: adding plants to a workplace, sorry, adding plants to a workspace can increase productivity by as much as 15%. I don’t have any plants. I have dogs, they’re not here right now, they’re usually in the picture behind me. Um I think I don’t know if those increased my productivity, they certainly increase my happiness, but plants can increase productivity by as much as 15%. I don’t see how.