# The AI Economy’s New Career Ladder ## Метаданные - **Канал:** CNBC - **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU8mysZaPts - **Дата:** 19.05.2026 - **Длительность:** 12:15 - **Просмотры:** 24,706 - **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/51525 ## Описание Artificial intelligence is reshaping the labor market but the shift is not limited to software engineers and office workers. As demand grows for data centers, fiber networks and other digital infrastructure, AT&T CEO John Stankey told CNBC the company needs more technicians, electricians and other skilled workers who do not necessarily need four-year degrees. CNBC spoke with 24-year-old AT&T technician Kyson Cook in Kettering, Ohio to explore how the AI boom could create new career paths for young workers. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 2:21 Trying the college path 7:05 On the job vs. college Produced and additional reporting by: Charlotte Morabito Hosted and reporting by: Gabrielle Fonrouge Camera by: Mickey Todiwala Edited by: Marisa Forziati, Erin Black Animation: Jason Reginato, Emily Park, Christina Locopo Senior Director of Video: Lindsey Jacobson Additional Footage: Getty Images, Travis Tuttle, Kyla Cook, Jason Cook, Elizabeth Arnold » Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/Subscribe ## Транскрипт ### Introduction [] AI is creating demand for a new kind of entry-level worker. To find out what that means for the US economy, I took a trip to the Midwest. I just got to Ohio to report on a story as to why the AI revolution is bringing a labor mismatch to towns across America. — You feel like a superhero up there. I'm proud to tell people what I do. — Kaisen Cook is a 24-year-old AT& T premises technician helping connect fiber into homes and businesses. — We are pretty much telephone pole to the gateway. The gateway is your modem or your router. That's your actual fiber optic itself. — Wow. — And we run a line from the pole to the house. I feel like a cowboy up there. — Kaisen's job doesn't require a 4-year degree. And as AI drives demand for data centers and the fiber networks that connect them, AT& T CEO John Stinky told my colleague Steve Leeman in an exclusive interview that the company needs more workers like Kaisen. — You need something to transport all that traffic that has to get in and out of those data centers. And that's fiber infrastructure. And we're building fiber right now faster than anybody else in this country. that's going to be essential to the AI generation. We've brought in probably 10,000 technicians over the last 3 years that are the front side of this trying to make sure everybody's connected and has access to our fiber and wireless networks to do things. We'll do a 3,000 this year. We find that we've got to go out and find them, train them, and send them to come in. It's not like we're growing them on trees in the United States. It sounds like you're saying there's sort of a misalignment between what the structure is to provide and train employees and what business, especially AT& T needs. — Yeah, I probably have a point of view personally that as a society and within the United States, we put a huge premium in value socially on a college degree. And yet we're short HVAC repair people. We're short electricians, technicians that can go in and work on fiber like we talk about. We maybe have missed the mark in some places. — Here's how the new AI economy is changing the career ladder. ### Trying the college path [2:21] — It's about the extent of that. — So, when you got to college, what made you realize that it wasn't working out for you? — Oh, I was miserable. — Kaisen graduated high school with a 3. 89 89 GPA. — College was pushed. That's the way to go. Oh, you're getting good grades. Go to school. — He immediately enrolled at Wright State University and planned to study either math or engineering. — I wanted to work with my hands, but it was hard because I did get good grades, so it was expected to go to school. Once I started college, I was like, "This is not for me. " — After about three semesters, he dropped out. — I was in the same four walls every day. Did not want to be there. I wanted more for myself. I was hungry to start life and I felt like I was extremely stagnant. I was in accounting. I loved my professor. I really do. I mean, looking back, I feel bad. But there was a guy that was sitting behind me and we had just finished a midterm in the other class and we both were like miserable. I was like, "You ready for accounting? " He said, "Nope, I'm going to get lunch. " And I had never ever skipped class. And I said, "You know what? I'm getting lunch with you. " And I knew I was like, "My priority is not school. " After Kaisen left college, he worked a mix of odd jobs. Retail, coaching wrestling, laying solar panels, and he even rode bulls for a little while. — I woke up one morning said, "I'm spending so many hours working and I'm not making enough, and I wanted a career. I wanted to be somewhere where I could move up in the company. " — AT& T was familiar to Kaisen because his dad and grandfather worked there. But when he applied, he didn't tell his father. — It's pride. I didn't want any strings pulled. I wanted my voice to speak for itself. I didn't want to be Jason's son or Cook's boy. I wanted to be Kaison. — So, when you were applying for this job, what kind of requirements? Did they need a college degree? — No. You needed to graduate high school and have a driver's license. All of the training is in house. AT& T says pay varies by location and experience, but entry-level roles can range from about $18 to $31 an hour with supervisor salaries ranging from 77,000 to $154,000 a year. The company says it also offers bonuses, tuition assistance, paid time off, retirement benefits, and healthcare. After one year with AT& T, I was with my mom and dad and I just saved everything I could, but it was the first time I was making like real money. So, I definitely splurged a couple times, you know, treat myself, but yeah, I was able to buy my first house within a year of working here. Kyson's career didn't begin in an office. He got his start getting his hands dirty and working outside in the elements. But for many young people who followed the traditional college to office path, that first rung of the career ladder is getting harder to reach. The strongest evidence we have so far in the labor market data is that it's younger workers in the more exposed jobs that are likely experiencing the greatest disruption. Lee Tucker, a senior economist at the Census Bureau, looked at early career workers between the ages of 22 and 24. What I find is an immediate 9% drop in hires after Chat GPT was released. This is the cause of an explanation for a loss of about 150,000 early career jobs over the period that I'm able to observe after CHPT was released. It's really hard for us to say that every piece of this decline is specifically because of AI, but it does look like AI is a contributing factor. — That uncertainty has policy makers watching the labor market closely. The White House recently told CNBC that AI isn't leading to mass job losses. — There's no sign in the data that AI is costing anybody a job right now, but we are studying the future of AI and what it means for the workforce. So, we've got a big task force on that. So far, AI hasn't shown up as a broad layoff shock in the headline jobs numbers. But hiring is a different story. When researchers zoom in on young workers in the most AI exposed fields, they see signs that entry-level job opportunities are being impacted. — We're still seeing plenty of jobs that require several years experience. They're just not finding entry- level jobs. — The way you make a senior employee is not through school. It's by doing the job alongside someone who knows more. and you learn by doing. And that's where the bulk of our skill comes from. By not hiring junior people, we're kind of snipping that career ladder off at the bottom. ### On the job vs. college [7:05] Even though these blueco collar jobs like ka's are in demand and can pay pretty well, employers are still having trouble filling them. And it's not just AT& T. Nationally, the construction industry says it is short roughly 350,000 workers this year. That gap is expected to grow to more than 450,000 by 2027. Within that gap, there's a shortage of electricians, which is expected to persist as data center construction continues to drive demand for precision wiring. Part of the issue is a lack of training. AT& T says it can spend $50 to $80,000 training a new technician. — So, tell me what AT& T is doing to solve this problem. — So, we have a variety of things we do. We tend to look in geographies where we really need resources. And we're active often times working with community colleges to build apprenticeship programs where people can go in and spend several months working with a local community college to get some of the basic skills that might make them qualified to come in and then train with us and we'll reinvest in training for them to get the fundamental skills if they have a base level of expertise. — Another component is the physically demanding nature of the work. Kaisen told us he makes great money, but technicians like him have to climb 25 foot poles or higher and be able to regularly lift up to 80 pounds. They also have to work outside in the elements, battling rain, snow, and extreme heat. Yesterday, you were in the rain all day. You're chilled to the bone. You can't get warm until you get home and get in the shower. Did you ever think like, man, it'd be better to work in an office on a day like that? — No. So, you're cold. And I wouldn't say miserable, but you're cold. I had one of my co-workers in Springfield. He's like, "This stinks. " I said, "You know what, Mike? It does stink. " But while we're both kind of working through the suck, we're cracking jokes and we're talking and we're making something fun. You look forward to that hot shower. I promise you that. But you're not in the same four walls. You're sitting there working outside. I'm working my hands and that's something I love to do. — Then there's the cultural issue companies are facing. For generations, a white collar job has come with a certain status and a near guarantee of upward mobility. College has long been the default path to get there, but there's signs that might be starting to change. For decades, workers with more education have had lower unemployment on average, which can help make college feel like a safer path. But unemployment among recent college graduates ages 22 to 27 is rising and hit around 5. 4% 4% in late 2025, which is above the broader unemployment rate and the rate for all college graduates. Kaisen decided to go back to college a few years after joining AT& T as a technician and was able to take advantage of the company's tuition reimbursement program. — When I came back after I found out I was having a baby, I knew I wanted to go into leadership. It was all online, so it made it so much more attainable for me. So, you eventually want to take a leadership or management role with AT& T and college isn't even required for that kind of leadership role, but you still decided to go back. Why is that? — I wanted something tangible that I can have and nobody can take it away. It's always going to be there and it was free. It was an opportunity that I did not want to lose. — Would college have been worth it for you if AT& T didn't pay for it? — No, I don't think I would have done it. Instead of paying off student loans, I'm able to create a future for my daughter and I through investments. And I'd much rather use money for investments than paying off student loans. — How different would your life look like right now if you had taken on student debt? — I would be 2 years out of college, working a job, making less than I am now, not even owning a house at this point. In my opinion, I would be behind versus where I'm at now. When I came back the second time, I had a goal. I wasn't just going to school because I was told to go to school. I was going to school in order to better myself within this company. And to do so, I decided to go the leadership route. What I was learning mattered to me way more. I think we're at a moment to shift. And so, we probably ought not to just assume that sending everybody to a 4-year degree is the right answer. we should be more thoughtful about what that four-year degree needs to look like or what that advanced learning and also ask does all work require that at AT& T about 90% of our positions really don't require a 4-year education in order to be successful and move forward and I'm not sure that that's going to change dramatically moving forward. — I feel secure with my job and I know I'm living comfortable and I didn't have to have a degree to be here. What would you tell an 18-year-old that feels like there's just one script or plan for them? — Keep your options open because no 18-year-old usually knows exactly what they want to do and life doesn't always turn out how it's planned.