Computer science tops a ranking of UK degrees by how far job listings have fallen since ChatGPT arrived. The ranking compares job listings with their 2022 levels, using counts from the Office for National Statistics. Listings for the jobs computer science graduates typically go into are down 54%. Listings across all jobs fell about 40% over the same period, so computer science has dropped well beyond the market as a whole.
The rest of the top five sits close behind. Accounting and finance is second, down 50%, and economics third, down 49%. Marketing and maths follow, both down 47%.
Three of those five degrees also rank near the top of a government measure of AI exposure. The Department for Education gives degree subjects a score based on the jobs their graduates hold, and a high score can mean AI helping with that work or replacing it. Economics comes first, maths sits in the top three, and accounting and finance makes the top five.
Accounting also leads the fall in hiring for first jobs. A government analysis of LinkedIn data, published in June, found UK hiring for entry-level accountants down 29% on a year earlier, the steepest fall of the 38 entry-level jobs it covered. Entry-level software engineer hiring fell 27% over the same year.
The government’s analysts stop short of blaming AI for those falls. They call the LinkedIn data consistent with AI affecting these roles but warn against reading it as proof, because other forces are hitting the same jobs. Employers in these fields have their pick of applicants, and the skills they want do not match the skills many candidates offer. The listing counts also measure openings, so they cannot show how many of these graduates still find work.
At the other end of the ranking is engineering, whose job listings have held up better than most others. It also sits near the bottom of the Department for Education’s scores.
