The share of young workers at major tech firms has fallen sharply over the past two-and-a-half years, according to new data from compensation platform Pave.
At large, public tech companies, employees between the ages of 21 and 25 made up 15.0% of the workforce in January 2023. By July 2025, that number had dropped to 6.7%. At private firms, the decline was smaller, from 9.3% to 6.7% over the same period.
Matt Schulman, chief executive of Pave, said the trend highlights the challenges facing new grads. “Recent college graduates are struggling to find jobs, especially at public technology companies,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Schulman, who is a former software engineer at Facebook $META, before it changed its name to Meta, said AI is reshaping the early-career job market. “AI tooling is disrupting many entry-level roles that have traditionally been attractive entry points into the tech labor force for new grads."
As younger employees leave the sector, the average age of the workforce is climbing. At public tech firms, it increased to 39.4 years in July 2025, up from 34.3 years in January 2023. At private firms, it rose to 36.6 years from 35.1 years.
Schulman asked, “Is the shift in the labor force towards older, more experienced employees a temporary economic adjustment, or a permanent shift in how tech companies build their workforce?”
The data follows hot on the heels of a Stanford University study that found employment among 22- to 25-year-olds in the most AI-exposed jobs, such as software engineering and customer service, has dropped 13% since late 2022.
That research, based on payroll data from millions of workers, suggests that generative AI is displacing entry-level employees even as older workers in the same roles hold steady or see gains.
The findings add hard data to a growing sense of anxiety among Gen Z. Goldman Sachs $GS recently calculated that the value of college degrees is quickly diminishing, while Bank of America $BAC Global research has said that the unemployment rate for recent graduates has started to exceed the overall rate for the first time in years.
Schulman also pointed to difficulties for business school graduates, adding that 15% of Harvard Business School grads in 2024 were without a job offer three months after leaving college, way up from 4% in 2021.
The trend “likely reflects the same economic pressures affecting new grads: companies prioritizing experienced hires during uncertain times and focusing on ‘efficient growth.’”
Pave bases its data on about 8,200 companies with age demographic information participating in its real-time compensation database.