Entry-level jobs in Europe are harder to find in 2026 because a smaller share of job ads is aimed at beginners, and the “junior” ads that remain increasingly ask for experience. TalentUp analyzed about 27 million job postings in ten European countries: entry-level ads (junior, graduate, trainee, intern, working student and apprentice roles) fell from 7.2% of all postings in January–September 2024 to 6.2% in the same months of 2026.
The decline is not uniform. Graduate and trainee ads lost almost a quarter of their share, software and data roles were hit hardest, and the UK, France and Poland saw the biggest falls. Meanwhile, about one in seven junior-titled ads now asks for two or more years of experience, up from one in nine in 2024.
This article sets out the evidence by country and job family, what is (and is not) known about the role of AI, the macro context from Eurostat, and what it means for employers building a talent pipeline and for candidates looking for a first job.
Key takeaways
- Entry-level ads fell from 7.2% to 6.2% of postings in ten European countries between 2024 and 2026 (January–September windows).
- Graduate and trainee ads dropped the most (from 1.01% to 0.78% of postings); internships held steady.
- Entry-level share fell sharply in software development (7.7% to 5.1%) and data roles (13.2% to 7.6%), but not in finance and accounting.
- About 14% of junior-titled ads ask for 2+ years of experience, up from 11% in 2024.
- EU youth unemployment was 15.4% in August 2026 (Eurostat), almost unchanged from a year earlier: the squeeze is on entry points, not a collapse in youth employment.
Are Entry-Level Jobs in Europe Really Disappearing?
Not disappearing, but shrinking as a share of hiring. Total job ad volumes in any database depend on how many sources are collected, so the most reliable signal is the share of postings aimed at entry-level candidates, measured over the same January–September window each year.
6.2%
of job ads target entry-level candidates in 2026, down from 7.2% in 2024
−23%
relative drop in the share of graduate and trainee ads
5.1%
of software developer ads are entry-level, down from 7.7%
14%
of junior-titled ads ask for 2+ years of experience (11% in 2024)
Source: TalentUp job postings database, 10 European countries, January–September 2024 and 2026. See methodology below.
Breaking entry-level ads down by type shows where the contraction is:
| Type of entry-level ad (share of all postings) |
2024 |
2025 |
2026 |
| Junior (junior, jr, júnior) |
2.1% |
2.1% |
1.9% |
| Graduate, trainee, entry level, Berufseinsteiger, neolaureato |
1.0% |
1.0% |
0.8% |
| Intern, working student, prácticas, stage, Praktikum, tirocinio, estágio |
2.3% |
1.9% |
2.1% |
| Apprentice, alternance, Ausbildung |
2.0% |
1.9% |
1.6% |
| Any entry-level ad |
7.2% |
6.6% |
6.2% |
Source: TalentUp, about 11.5 million (2024), 9.9 million (2025) and 5.9 million (2026) postings in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Ireland and Belgium. Categories can overlap, so they do not add up exactly to the total.
Graduate programs and trainee schemes, the classic first step for university leavers, show the clearest fall. Internships, by contrast, are roughly where they were in 2024, which suggests employers still want low-commitment ways to try out young talent, but are opening fewer permanent first jobs.
Entry-Level Hiring by Country
Levels differ a lot between countries, mostly because of how beginners are hired. France and Germany have large apprenticeship (alternance, Ausbildung) and working-student (Werkstudent) markets, while in the UK and Ireland many junior roles are not labelled as such in the job title.
| Country |
Entry-level share 2024 |
2025 |
2026 |
Change 2024–2026 |
Youth unemployment, Aug 2026 (Eurostat) |
| France |
11.2% |
12.4% |
9.8% |
−1.4 pts |
20.6% |
| Germany |
9.3% |
7.7% |
9.3% |
0.0 pts |
7.4% |
| Italy |
8.9% |
8.3% |
8.9% |
0.0 pts |
20.3% |
| Netherlands |
5.6% |
6.1% |
5.8% |
+0.2 pts |
8.8% |
| Portugal |
5.0% |
3.7% |
4.5% |
−0.6 pts |
19.8% |
| Spain |
4.5% |
4.4% |
4.3% |
−0.2 pts |
22.7% |
| Belgium |
4.2% |
4.6% |
4.2% |
0.0 pts |
n/a |
| United Kingdom |
4.4% |
3.2% |
3.3% |
−1.1 pts |
not in Eurostat release |
| Ireland |
2.5% |
2.5% |
2.3% |
−0.3 pts |
12.3% |
| Poland |
3.2% |
3.8% |
2.0% |
−1.2 pts |
11.3% |
Three patterns stand out:
- The UK and Poland saw the sharpest falls outside France. In the UK, the share of graduate and trainee ads alone dropped from 2.5% to 1.7% of postings.
- Germany’s stable headline hides a shift. Junior-titled ads fell from 2.4% to 1.4% of postings, while apprenticeship ads (Ausbildung, Azubi) rose from 1.7% to 3.9%. Beginners are increasingly hired through structured vocational routes rather than junior positions.
- France’s drop is driven by apprenticeships, whose share fell from 8.3% of postings in 2025 to 5.3% in 2026. This coincides with lower state hiring aid: under Decree 2026-168, the exceptional aid for apprenticeship contracts signed from 8 March 2026 is at most €4,500 for companies under 250 employees, and lower for higher diploma levels, compared with up to €5,000 in 2025 (Service-Public). The timing is consistent with an effect, but our data cannot prove it.
The macro context: youth unemployment
Official figures show that the pressure is on entry points rather than on youth employment as a whole. According to Eurostat’s monthly unemployment release of 1 October 2026 (dataset une_rt_m, seasonally adjusted), the EU youth unemployment rate (under 25) was 15.4% in August 2026, compared with 15.3% in August 2025, and 2.973 million young people were unemployed. The euro area rate was 15.0% (14.8% a year earlier).
The gap between countries is wide: from 7.4% in Germany and 8.8% in the Netherlands to 20.6% in France and 22.7% in Spain. Spain’s rate fell from 25.0% a year earlier, while France (19.4% to 20.6%) and Portugal (18.9% to 19.8%) moved up.
Which Job Families Lost the Most Entry-Level Roles
Pooling the ten countries, we measured what share of ads in each job family is aimed at entry-level candidates, identifying families from keywords in the job title.
| Job family (title-based) |
Entry-level share 2024 |
2025 |
2026 |
Postings in family, 2026 |
| Marketing |
20.8% |
16.5% |
17.2% |
~105,000 |
| Data and business intelligence |
13.2% |
9.0% |
7.6% |
~59,000 |
| HR and recruiting |
16.0% |
12.9% |
12.8% |
~106,000 |
| Finance and accounting |
9.3% |
9.0% |
9.2% |
~186,000 |
| Software development |
7.7% |
5.8% |
5.1% |
~257,000 |
| Customer service |
3.9% |
3.3% |
3.2% |
~59,000 |
Data roles lost the most ground: the entry-level share almost halved, from 13.2% to 7.6%. Software development fell by a third, from 7.7% to 5.1%. Marketing and HR, traditionally big employers of interns and trainees, dropped between 2024 and 2025 and then stabilized. Finance and accounting is the exception, with an entry-level share of around 9% in all three years, possibly because audit and accounting firms still recruit graduate cohorts.
The Experience Paradox: Junior Roles Asking for Years of Experience
Many candidates complain that “entry-level” jobs require experience they cannot get without a first job. Our data confirms that this is real and growing, although it still affects a minority of ads.
We read the full descriptions of random samples of junior-titled ads (about 7,400 ads with descriptions of at least 1,500 characters) and detected explicit experience requirements in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch and Polish.
| Junior-titled ads that… |
2024 |
2025 |
2026 |
| State a specific experience requirement in years |
18.9% |
26.3% |
24.8% |
| Ask for 2 or more years of experience |
11.1% |
13.3% |
14.0% |
| Ask for 3 or more years of experience |
3.8% |
4.6% |
5.2% |
Typical examples include a junior accountant ad asking for “3+ years’ previous experience” or a junior sales manager role requiring a “minimum 2 years of B2B sales experience”. In 2026, the share of junior ads asking for 2+ years was highest in Portugal (about 20%), Spain (about 17%) and the Netherlands (about 16%), and lowest in Germany (about 10%).
These are minimum estimates: many ads ask for “previous experience” without stating years, and those are not counted.
Why Are Entry-Level Jobs Hard to Find? The Main Causes
The data shows what is happening; the causes are a combination of factors, and no single dataset can separate them cleanly.
AI and the automation of junior tasks
The families with the biggest entry-level falls, software development and data, are among those most exposed to generative AI tools that write code, build reports and draft analysis, tasks traditionally given to juniors. That is consistent with AI reducing demand for beginners. But it is a correlation, not proof: finance and accounting is also highly exposed to automation, yet its entry-level share did not fall. For how AI is changing HR work itself, see AI in HR: the future of human resources.
Cautious, senior-first hiring
When budgets are tight and the economic outlook uncertain, employers favor candidates who can contribute from day one. Junior hires need onboarding, supervision and training time from senior staff. The fall in graduate and trainee ads, the most training-intensive kind of hire, fits this pattern.
Experience inflation and automated screening
As the table above shows, a growing minority of junior ads ask for two or more years of experience. Combined with keyword-based screening in applicant tracking systems, this filters out candidates with no prior work history before a recruiter ever sees them.
A shift to structured and subsidized routes
Beginner hiring is moving towards apprenticeships, working-student roles and internships, which are cheaper, time-limited and, in some countries, subsidized. Germany’s rise in Ausbildung ads and France’s drop in alternance ads after a cut in hiring aid show how much these routes depend on national training systems and incentives.
What It Means for Employers
The talent pipeline risk
Today’s juniors are the mid-level professionals of 2030. Companies that stop hiring beginners save money now but create a shortage of experienced talent later, when they will compete for a smaller pool, and pay more for it. Fewer entry points also narrow access for first-generation graduates and career changers, weakening diversity.
Practical steps to rebuild the pipeline
- Treat junior hiring as an investment. Keep a minimum annual intake of graduates or apprentices, even in a hiring freeze, and plan it as part of workforce strategy.
- Use apprenticeships and working-student programs. They are already the main beginner route in Germany and France, and they let you train people on your own tools and processes.
- Write honest junior ads. If a role needs two or more years of experience, it is not junior. Audit your “junior” ads and ATS filters so they do not exclude the candidates you say you want.
- Move to skills-based hiring. Assess projects, portfolios, case studies and work samples instead of years of experience.
- Redesign junior roles around AI. Instead of removing the tasks AI can do, give juniors responsibility for reviewing, testing and improving AI output, with clear mentoring. Our article on AI fluency in HR and the future of work explains which skills matter.
- Pay entry-level roles competitively and transparently. Once national laws transposing the EU Pay Transparency Directive apply, candidates must receive the starting pay or pay range before the interview. Our guide to transparent salary job postings explains how to publish credible ranges, and market salaries vs. internal equity how to keep junior pay consistent with your current team.
For a broader view of how HR teams are adapting their processes and tools, see the digital transformation of HR in Europe. To benchmark junior and graduate pay by country, check the European Salary Benchmark Report or read how our data is built in our methodology.
What It Means for Candidates
The market is tougher, but the data also points to where opportunities remain:
- Look beyond “junior” job titles. Internships, working-student roles, apprenticeships and graduate programs together account for most entry-level ads in many countries.
- Do not self-reject. Most junior ads do not state an experience requirement in years, and those asking for “1–2 years” often accept internships, projects or part-time work as experience.
- Target resilient families. In our data, finance and accounting kept a stable entry-level share, while software and data became much more competitive.
- Show evidence, not just credentials. Projects, portfolios, open-source contributions and practical use of AI tools make up for limited work history.
- Consider mobility. Entry-level shares and youth unemployment vary widely across Europe; Germany and the Netherlands combine low youth unemployment with a steady share of beginner ads.
Conclusion
Entry-level jobs in Europe are harder to find in 2026 for measurable reasons: beginner ads are a smaller share of hiring, graduate programs and tech roles have contracted the most, and more junior ads ask for experience. AI is part of the story, especially in software and data, but cautious hiring and national training policies matter just as much.
For employers, the risk is a hollowed-out talent pipeline a few years from now. The companies that keep hiring and training beginners today, through apprenticeships, honest junior ads and skills-based selection, will have the mid-level talent their competitors are missing.
Sources