A Talent Drought is Imminent If Entry-Level Hiring Continues to Decline.

Graduate & entry-level hiring is collapsing globally. According to Adzuna, entry-level roles in finance have dropped 50.8%, and IT services by a brutal 54.8%. Last year, we saw PwC slash its intake by 40%, EY by 27%, and Deloitte and KPMG by 20%.

These aren't just a steady decline in numbers; they represent a hefty abandonment of the talent pipeline that has sustained Australian business for decades.

It’s easy to see the temptation that orgs must feel to cut entry-level programs while they navigate economic uncertainty and embrace AI-driven efficiency. After all, why invest in untested talent when you can automate processes or poach experienced professionals? This thinking, while understandable in quarterly reporting cycles, represents a colossal failure to see beyond 2026’s balance sheet to the structural crisis ahead of us.

Chris Smith, Head of Strategy and Innovation at ReadyTech, sums it up well:

“The urgent challenge in our view is the collapse of early-career opportunities, the foundational roles that enable workers to gain experience, learn on the job, and progress.”

This isn't hyperbole, it's the lived reality of an entire generation. Students who began university journeys in 2022, before anyone had even heard of ChatGPT (wild), are now discovering they've spent three years training for jobs that don't exist. The human cost is real. As one graduate put it: “The last thing you need at 21 is for an AI model to take the job you were told your degree was essential for.” 

And the business cost will be worse. Australia needs 1.2 million new tech workers by 2030 - that’s over 100,000 each year. Yet, 1) we produce only around 7,000 IT graduates annually, and 2) we’re cutting the very programs that might keep them in the workforce.

The math ain't mathing. Tech job vacancies are already 60% higher than the national average and growing three times faster. We’re not just short on talent - we’re actively engineering (pardon the pun) a future crisis.

Let’s grab our crystal ball, shall we?

2027: The professionals who should be hitting their stride, leading projects, and mentoring others don't exist in sufficient numbers. Orgs find themselves with aging senior staff and a dangerous gap in mid-level expertise.

2030: Without today's graduates progressing through the ranks, we face an unprecedented leadership crisis. The individuals who should understand both legacy systems and emerging technologies - the bridge between old and new – are nowhere to be seen.

The irony - while AI promises to revolutionise work, some companies are using it as an excuse to cut the very talent needed to make it work. AI doesn't eliminate the need for skilled humans - it amplifies it. And those skills are grown, nurtured, and developed from time in the saddle, not overnight.

Australia’s context makes this even harder. We're geographically isolated, competing globally, and can't rely solely on imported talent. Migration won’t save us - other nations offer more compelling tech sector opportunities.

This makes homegrown talent a matter of national competitiveness.

When we cut graduate programs, we're not saving money. We're surrendering the future to countries investing more aggressively in theirs.

You Can't Reskill If There's No One to Reskill

At Neoma, we help organisations unlock the potential in their existing teams. We believe in internal development, but that’s not enough to solve the skills gap alone. You still need people entering the system.

To paint an example - if you have a bucket with holes in the bottom, you can pour water in the top more efficiently, but you still need to keep pouring. Internal development helps us use our existing talent more effectively, but without new graduates entering the system, we're still dealing with a diminishing resource.

The smartest organisations will do both - develop internal talent and rebuild external pipelines.

Hello actions, meet consequences:

The longer we wait, the worse it gets. Here’s a few examples:

Wage inflation: Shrinking talent pool equals skyrocketing salaries

Project delays: Fewer hands make for a very slow transformation

Knowledge loss: Seniors retire, juniors never hired = no handover

Innovation decline: Graduates bring fresh energy and ideas. They’re dialled into the latest technology. Lose them, lose momentum.

This Is a Leadership Problem

This isn’t an HR problem alone. It’s actually predominantly a C-suite problem. Without skilled professionals, there is no innovation, no transformation, no future leadership.

The companies that will thrive tomorrow are those investing in talent today, even when it feels hard. We can either optimise for short-term gains or build a future-ready workforce. The talent drought is not a drill, and the solution is clear:

Invest in people- both the ones you have, and the ones you haven’t, hired yet.