Graduates are applying for hundreds of positions only for dozen or so firms to show interest, as entry-level roles vanish and AI changes job market
4-MIN READ4-MIN ListenAmbrose LiPublished: 8:30am, 10 Jun 2026Hong Kong graduate Ivan Cheung has filed more than 200 job applications since March, and he is hoping that out of the dozen or so companies that have asked him to interview or take a written test, one will eventually hire him.
But the data science and analytics graduate from Polytechnic University is in a slightly better position than some of his peers as he works part-time, giving him a small financial cushion as he tries to find a permanent role.
Cheung said that those around him who had managed to find a job considered themselves lucky as the previously predictable transition from university to career had become rife with uncertainty with the advent of AI.
“Artificial intelligence literacy is perhaps the most important skill to have to be able to secure a job now,” he said, adding that it was important to learn how to give AI specific and directed prompts to generate information that could help address business pain points rather than general answers.
Cheung is among tens of thousands of fresh graduates facing the gloomiest employment market since 2021 in Hong Kong.
