Artificial intelligence is upending the labor market, eliminating the bottom rungs of the career ladder. Unless we take bold action, young people — especially young men — will be the first to fall.
Whether AI ultimately destroys jobs or merely reshuffles them, millions of young Americans will bear the cost. We are sleepwalking into the most significant economic transformation of our lifetimes, and the answer isn’t government handouts or universal basic income.
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A recent Stanford analysis found that workers ages 22 to 25 in jobs most exposed to AI have seen a 13% decline in employment since late 2022. The underemployment rate for recent college graduates just hit 42.5%, and workers without a four-year degree face roughly double the automation risk of those with one.
AI ISN’T BECOMING SENTIENT — IT’S BECOMING YOU
The economic numbers are compounded by the growing loneliness crisis in the U.S. A new nationally representative survey conducted by American Service Project and More in Common of over 3,000 Americans found that 30% of the public under 30 say they often feel isolated from others. One in 4 say their lives lack meaning and purpose. One in 5 say there is no community where they feel they belong. Young men are feeling this most acutely.
With loneliness at an all-time high, patriotism at a record low, and a majority, 55%, of people believing the next generation will be worse off financially than their own, we should be deeply concerned. When young people cannot find a foothold in the economy, the consequences ripple through families, communities, and the social fabric.
But the U.S. has a tested solution to this challenge, one that has proven successful throughout our nation’s 250-year history — put young people to work building the country itself.
During the Great Depression, 8 million Americans worked through the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. They built national parks, bridges, schools, and hospitals — infrastructure we still use today. Similarly, the GI Bill created the public’s middle class, educating 7.8 million veterans through college and vocational programs, producing the auto mechanics, electricians, and construction workers who built postwar prosperity. These workers didn’t just get a paycheck. They earned it through structured service.
Every one of these programs was a response to a crisis, and each built something that lasted for generations. At times of economic upheaval, America’s most effective solution has been to invest in its young people — not through handouts, but through earned opportunity that builds real skills and community.
While policymakers in Washington debate things such as universal basic income or universal basic capital, people, their constituents, have already agreed on how to navigate what comes next. The answer lies in national service.
When asked how society should respond to AI-driven job loss, research shows that the public prefers earning support through national service over receiving direct financial support by a ratio of 7 to 1. Only 1 in 10 support anything resembling universal basic income. In other words, Americans want productive work, not a check.
We found that nearly 8 in 10 people, including over 80% of President Donald Trump voters, support national service programs that are voluntary and civilian-focused. And those who identify as MAGA hardliners, the fiery core of Trump’s base, are the most supportive. In fact, Republicans were three times more likely to want the government to take an active role in helping young people prepare for AI-driven job loss than want the government out of it entirely.
Meeting this moment requires us to be bold, and a national service program focused on skilled trades and apprenticeships — roles that lead to careers in construction, energy, education, or healthcare — is popular across party lines. Sectors where human presence is the entire point, where unmet need is enormous, and where AI cannot substitute for human judgment and connection. This is how we will future-proof our workforce and economy.
The standard playbook of federal retraining programs will fail because they treat workers as inputs to be re-slotted into whatever job the economy currently demands. National service is different. It is a launchpad, not a training program. It teaches skills, yes, but also pride, purpose, and a stake in the country they are helping to build.
The public is hungry for an answer that matches the seriousness of this disruption. National service at scale can meet the magnitude of what is coming. But it is not yet on the menu.
SELF-IMPROVEMENT OR SELF-DECEPTION? THE HIDDEN RISK OF AI BUILDING ITSELF
Whether you are an AI doomer or an AI optimist, this technology threatens the social contract. We can agree that we do not yet have the tools, let alone the national confidence, to undertake the sort of rebuilding this era demands. National service rebuilds this confidence from the ground up, not by pretending the old economy is coming back, but by insisting that contribution and obligation remain at the foundation of what it means to be an American.
The public doesn’t want a check, they want a chance. It is time we gave them one.
Jason Mangone served in the U.S. Marines and is the executive director at More in Common U.S. Vicky Hausman served in the Peace Corps and is the founder and CEO of American Service Project.
