In late 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, and graduates who majored in computer science and other AI-exposed fields are increasingly missing out on the jobs they trained for, with some landing in restaurants and retail, according to two Census Bureau papers. An April 2026 Census paper tracking matched employer-employee records found hiring of workers ages 22 to 24 fell sharply in the industries most exposed to AI, while hiring in less-exposed industries held steady. Employment for early-career workers in the most AI-exposed fifth of industries dropped 12% over the ten quarters after ChatGPT’s release. Coauthor Lee Tucker said “the decline in hires is the primary cause” of that rate of unemployment, not people losing jobs they already had. A second paper from last week follows graduates of the most AI-exposed decile of college majors; their odds of holding a job one quarter after graduation fell by five percentage points, and full-quarter initial earnings dropped 13% following ChatGPT’s release. About half of the earnings loss came from graduates earning less within the industries that did hire them, and the other half from a shift into lower-wage sectors like restaurants and retail. The more recent paper found earnings and employment gaps shrink over time but remain substantial for the most AI-exposed majors even years out. Undergraduate computer science enrollment fell 8.4% in spring 2026 from a year earlier, following a 3.6% drop the prior fall.