--- title: "AI jobs and entry-level hiring: what postings show (October 2026)" description: "AI-titled roles are 1.5% of live postings and only 16.4% of them are entry level, against 38.3% of all postings." canonical: https://jobspipe.dev/blog/ai-jobs-entry-level date_published: 2026-10-11 date_modified: 2026-10-11 author: Dvir Atias --- # AI jobs and entry-level hiring, October 2026: only 1 in 6 AI roles is entry level, and tech is the reason AI-titled roles are 1.5% of live postings and only 16.4% of them are entry level, against 38.3% of all postings. The gap is a tech effect, not an AI effect: inside ICT occupations, AI roles are entry level 15.4% of the time against 12.5% for tech roles overall. AI roles look closed to juniors: 16.4% of postings with an AI title are entry level, against 38.3% of all postings. Compare them with other tech jobs and the picture flips: inside software and ICT occupations, 15.4% of AI roles are entry level against 12.5% of tech roles overall. 16.4% of job postings with an AI title are entry level, against 38.3% of all postings with a stated seniority. In the United States the gap is wider: 10.4% of AI roles against 35.8% of all roles. Read on its own, that looks like AI hiring is shut to graduates. Compare AI roles with other technology jobs instead of with the whole market and the gap reverses. Inside software and ICT occupations, 15.4% of AI roles are entry level, against 12.5% of tech roles overall. The squeeze on juniors is a tech-wide pattern; AI roles are, if anything, slightly more open to them. 1.5% AI roles, share of postings 11.6% inside ICT 38.3% Entry level, all postings with a stated seniority 16.4% Entry level, AI roles 1 in 6 15.4% Entry level, AI roles in tech vs 12.5% for all tech roles ## How an AI role is defined here A posting counts as an AI role when its title names the work: AI, ML, LLM, GenAI, NLP or MLOps as a word, or artificial intelligence, machine learning, generative AI, deep learning, computer vision or data science. Titles are the honest signal. Skills extracted from descriptions are not: company boilerplate such as “we are an AI-first company” tags retail and cleaning postings with AI skills, which would make AI look like an entry-level requirement when it is a slogan. Seniority comes from the posting where the board states it and from the title otherwise; postings with no seniority signal are left out of the entry-level shares. ## AI roles concentrate at senior levels - Entry level0.8% - Mid level0.7% - Senior3.3% - Lead3.9% - Executive2.4% Share of postings at each seniority level that are AI roles, October 2026. 3.9% of lead-level postings are AI roles, against 0.8% of entry-level postings, 5.0x the rate. That is the number that drives the headline, and most of it comes from where AI roles sit in the occupation mix. ## Compare like with like: tech against tech | Occupations | AI roles, share of postings | Entry level, all roles | Entry level, AI roles | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Software and ICT professionals | 11.6% | 12.5% | 15.4% | | Every other occupation | 0.7% | 40.8% | 17.7% | | All postings | 1.5% | 38.3% | 16.4% | Technology jobs are among the most senior-heavy in the market: only 12.5% of ICT postings are entry level, against 38.3% across all postings. AI roles are mostly ICT roles, so they inherit that profile. Within ICT they sit at the same level or slightly below on seniority, which is the opposite of the “AI is only for seniors” reading. ## By country | Country | AI roles, share of postings | Entry level, all roles | Entry level, AI roles | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Singapore | 3.7% | 26.3% | 25.7% | | India | 3.0% | 31.9% | 21.2% | | Spain | 1.9% | 35.0% | 14.8% | | United Kingdom | 1.7% | 28.3% | 11.0% | | Italy | 1.7% | 52.8% | 48.0% | | Germany | 1.6% | 35.2% | 18.8% | | Canada | 1.5% | 37.4% | 12.3% | | Netherlands | 1.4% | 36.5% | 25.0% | | Philippines | 1.3% | 33.1% | 26.8% | | United States | 1.3% | 35.8% | 10.4% | | Japan | 1.3% | 69.5% | 27.2% | | Australia | 1.2% | 29.8% | 14.6% | | France | 0.9% | 43.6% | 21.2% | | Mexico | 0.8% | 45.1% | 15.5% | | Brazil | <0.5% | 56.9% | 14.9% | ## Where AI roles sit - Information and Communications Technology Professionals10.1% - Science and Engineering Professionals3.2% - Chief Executives, Senior Officials and Legislators1.9% - Teaching Professionals1.5% - Production and Specialized Services Managers1.4% - Administrative and Commercial Managers1.2% - Legal, Social and Cultural Professionals1.2% - Business and Administration Professionals0.9% Share of postings in each ISCO-08 sub-major group that are AI roles, October 2026. For pay by AI title, see [the highest-paying AI jobs](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/highest-paying-ai-jobs-september-2026). For demand across every occupation, [the Labour Market Pulse](https://jobspipe.dev/pulse) is refreshed daily. ## Pulling entry-level AI postings with the API ``` curl -X POST https://api.jobspipe.dev/v1/jobs/search \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $JOBSPIPE_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "job_title_or": ["machine learning engineer", "ai engineer", "data scientist"], "job_seniority_or": ["entry"], "job_country_code_or": ["US", "GB"], "status": "active", "limit": 25 }' ``` `job_seniority_or` accepts entry, mid, senior, lead and exec. Add `include_unlabeled_seniority` to keep postings that carry no seniority signal. How this was measured Measured from active postings in the JobsPipe index, each counted once; entry-level shares use postings with a stated or inferred seniority. Generated 2026-10-11. Shares only: JobsPipe publishes percentages, not counts. An AI role is identified from the job title only, never from skills extracted from the description, because description boilerplate tags non-AI jobs with AI skills. ``` curl -X POST https://api.jobspipe.dev/v1/jobs/search \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $JOBSPIPE_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"job_title_or":["machine learning engineer"],"job_seniority_or":["entry"],"status":"active","limit":25}' ``` Use this data Free to cite, chart and republish with a link back. Download the full table as [CSV](https://jobspipe.dev/data/ai-jobs-entry-level.csv). Suggested citation: JobsPipe, “AI jobs and entry-level hiring, October 2026”, October 2026. https://jobspipe.dev/blog/ai-jobs-entry-level Journalists and researchers: for a cut by state, occupation or company size that is not in the tables, email [dvir@jobspipe.dev](mailto:dvir@jobspipe.dev). ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Are there entry-level AI jobs? Yes, but fewer than in the market overall: 16.4% of AI-titled postings are entry level, against 38.3% of all postings. Inside software and ICT occupations the rate is 15.4%, slightly above the 12.5% for tech roles overall. ### Is AI reducing entry-level jobs? Job postings cannot show cause, but they show where the gap sits. Tech occupations as a whole post few entry-level roles, and AI roles mirror that. Within tech, AI roles are not more senior than other roles, so the posting data does not support the idea that AI roles specifically lock juniors out. ### What share of job postings are AI jobs? 1.5% of live postings have an AI title, rising to 11.6% inside software and ICT occupations. Singapore has the highest share among the large markets we track, at 3.7%. Related ## Keep reading - [Product · Sep 18, 2026The highest-paying AI jobs in September 2026](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/highest-paying-ai-jobs-september-2026) - [Reference · Oct 11, 2026Job market report, October 2026: what millions of live job postings say about hiring right now](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/job-market-report) - [Product · Jul 31, 2026Introducing the Labour Market Pulse: free monthly hiring and salary data from live postings](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/labour-market-pulse) - [Reference · Oct 11, 2026Ghost Job Index, October 2026: how many job postings are ghosts, by board, company size and country](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/ghost-job-index) - [Reference · Sep 9, 2026Ghost jobs by job board: share of ghost-like postings on LinkedIn, Indeed, Workday, Greenhouse and six more](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/ghost-jobs-by-job-board) --- Try it with no key: `curl -d '{"limit":3}' https://api.jobspipe.dev/v1/sandbox/jobs/search`. AI agents: the full machine-readable index of this site is https://jobspipe.dev/llms.txt?src=md-twin - API quickstart, MCP server, pricing. Free key (1,000 jobs to start): https://jobspipe.dev/signup