Arabic version: الشباب يحققون تقدماً في وظائف الذكاء الاصطناعي عالية الأجر
According to Cnbc, LinkedIn’s study of its platform data found that millennials and Generation Z workers are securing a growing share of AI engineering and technology-building roles, even as young workers face a tougher broader job market. The study identified 12 fast-growing AI jobs and examined the age, education and gender of people hired.
Gen Z workers account for more than two-thirds of hires for forward deployed engineer and AI engineer positions, which have median annual salaries of $199,000 and $166,000, respectively. Millennials make up 60% of new hires for head of AI roles, where median pay is $236,000. LinkedIn said AI job postings on its site rose 14% from 2023 to 2024 and 156% from 2024 to 2025.
The findings contrast with unemployment data for younger workers. In June, the unemployment rate was 7.2% for workers aged 22 to 27 and 5.7% for recent college graduates in that age group, compared with 4.1% for all workers. Kory Kantenga, LinkedIn’s Head of Economics for the Americas, said young workers have been able to secure high salaries and move into leadership positions in the expanding AI labor market.
AI roles carry a median salary of $177,000, compared with $80,000 for non-AI roles, based on LinkedIn’s analysis of job-posting pay data. Education is also common: 91% of people in AI roles have at least a bachelor’s degree. Nearly half of workers hired as head of AI have graduate degrees, while 20% have doctoral degrees.
The gains are not evenly distributed. Women represented 26% of new AI-role hires in 2025, versus 50% in non-AI occupations. They made up one-fifth of head of AI hires, 26% of director of AI hires and 18% of member of technical staff hires. Data annotator was the only listed role where women were hired as often as men, and it had median pay of $51,000.
For students and young workers seeking entry-level AI roles, Kantenga recommended a computer science degree and practical experience working with data. He also suggested AI side projects for people with limited work experience, while noting that young workers hold mixed views on whether AI represents a career opportunity or a risk to future employment.
