AI: Labour Market Changes

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

My Lords, first, I pay tribute to the noble Lord for his long-standing work in this field and for the consistent attention that he has brought to this very important matter.

We have published the Responsible AI in Recruitment guidance, which sets out good practice for procuring and deploying AI systems for HR and recruitment. This guidance highlights the mechanism that can be used to ensure the safe and trustworthy use of AI in recruitment. As highlighted in the AI Opportunities Action Plan: One Year On, where we have achieved some 38 out of 50 commitments that we set ourselves, we have taken steps to build the AI assurance ecosystem that underpins safe and responsible use of AI. I will reach out to the noble Lord and meet up with him, together with my officials, to explore this further.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend’s response to this last question was important and welcome. But can I refer him to the remarks of Dex Hunter-Torricke, the former Google executive, from a few days ago? He talked about the devastating impact that AI is now having on young people in terms of recruitment and said:

“The displacement has already begun. Entry-level roles in law, consulting, and software engineering are contracting. Graduates face a labor market narrowing faster than new roles are opening. Workers in middle-income jobs are training their AI replacements right now”.


I urge the Government to think carefully about what impact this is now having on young people in this country and what we are going to do about it, and what we are going to do with employers. This is urgent.

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

My noble friend is right. We will not stand by but will look proactively at the evidence of impacts on the workforce. Yes, we acknowledge that some work will be replaced by AI, but, at the same time, new jobs will be created and we have to ensure that our workforce right across the country adopts new AI skills. That is why the Government are going to upskill 10 million people right across all sectors to ensure that they have the basic skills to incorporate and use AI to improve their productivity and so on. At the same time, we are also looking at the curriculum: AI will be taught in schools, so that, when children finish school, they will be better equipped for the new work environment.