UBS Will Require New Junior Bankers to Show AI Skills as China's Largest Graduate Class Meets a Weak Market

UBS will require graduates and interns hoping to join the bank to demonstrate that they can use artificial-intelligence tools to improve output and efficiency, the Financial Times reports. The requirement applies to the entry-level analyst roles that investment banks have historically used to train people through repetitive document work, which is the same work these tools now perform.

The other end of the same change is visible in China. A cohort of 12.7 million university graduates entered the job market this year, an increase of 480,000 on 2025, as the South China Morning Post reported, and the surveyed unemployment rate for 16 to 24 year olds excluding students rose to 17.9 percent in July from 14.9 percent in June. The New York Times found graduates competing for a shrinking number of white-collar openings as Chinese employers adopt automation quickly and with state encouragement.

Neither employers nor governments have a settled answer to what happens next. Firms that automate entry-level tasks reduce costs now and lose the apprenticeship pipeline that produces experienced staff in five to ten years. Graduates who cannot secure the first job do not accumulate the experience that later hiring requires.

The macro consequence is a labor market that reports adequate aggregate employment while young workers face a much harder entry. That pattern is visible in China's data today, and the UBS requirement suggests Western professional employers are moving in the same direction rather than resisting it.