Citi Foundation is putting $25M toward tackling young adults'
unemployment and AI labor disruptions
[October 21, 2025] By
JAMES POLLARD
NEW YORK (AP) — Young jobseekers, challenged by a rapidly changing labor
market, are having a tough time.
The U.S. unemployment rate for 22- to 27-year-old degree holders is the
highest in a dozen years outside of the pandemic. Companies are
reluctant to add staff amid so much economic uncertainty. The hiring
slump is especially hitting professions such as information technology
that employ more college graduates, creating nightmarish job hunts for
the increasingly smaller number who do complete college. Not to mention
fears that artificial intelligence will replace entry-level roles.
So, Citi Foundation identified youth employability as the theme for its
$25 million Global Innovation Challenge this year. The banking group's
philanthropic arm is donating a half million dollars to each of 50
groups worldwide that provide digital literacy skills, technical
training and career guidance for low-income youth.
“What we want to do is make sure young people are as prepared as
possible to find employment in a world that’s moving really quickly,”
said Ed Skyler, Citi Head of Enterprise Services and Public Affairs.
Employer feedback suggested to Citi that early career applicants lacked
the technical skills necessary for roles many had long prepared to fill,
highlighting the need for continued vocational training and the
importance of soft skills.
Skyler pointed to the World Economic Forum’s recent survey of more than
1,000 companies that together employ millions of people. Skills gaps
were considered the biggest barrier to business transformation over the
next five years. Two-thirds of respondents reported planning to hire
people with specific AI skills and 40% of them anticipated eliminating
jobs AI could complete.
Some of Citi's grantees are responding by teaching people how to prompt
AI chatbots to do work that can be automated. But Skyler emphasized it
was equally important that Citi fund efforts to impart qualities AI
lacks such as teamwork, empathy, judgment and communication.
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all effort where we think every young person
needs to be able to code or interface with AI," Skyler said. “What is
consistent throughout the programs is we want to develop the soft
skills.”
Among the recipients is NPower, a national nonprofit that seeks to
improve economic opportunity in underinvested communities by making
digital careers more accessible. Most of their students are young adults
between the ages of 18 and 26.
NPower Chief Innovation Officer Robert Vaughn said Citi's grant will at
least double the spaces available in a program for “green students” with
no tech background and oftentimes no college degree.
[to top of second column] |
Kendra Parlock, Vice President of Partnership Development at NPower,
and Robert Vaughn, Chief Innovation Officer, pose for a portrait at
an NPower alumni event at World Wide Technology, Monday, Oct. 20,
2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
 Considering the tech industry's
ever-changing requirements for skills and certifications, he said,
applicants need to demonstrate wide-ranging capabilities both in
cloud computing and artificial intelligence as well as project
management and emotional intelligence.
As some entry-level roles get automated and outsourced, Vaughn said
companies aren’t necessarily looking for college degrees and
specialized skillsets, but AI comfortability and general competency.
“It is more now about being able to be more than just an isolated,
siloed technical person," he said. “You have to actually be a
customer service person.”
Per Scholas, a tuition-free technology training nonprofit, is
another one of the grantees announced Tuesday. Caitlyn Brazill, its
president, said the funds will help develop careers for about 600
young adults across Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Chicago and the
greater Washington, D.C area.
To keep their classes relevant, she spends a lot of time
strategizing with small businesses and huge enterprises alike.
Citi's focus on youth employability is especially important, she
said, because she hears often that AI's productivity gains have
forced companies to rethink entry-level roles.
Dwindling early career opportunities have forced workforce
development nonprofits like hers to provide enough hands-on training
to secure jobs that previously would have required much more
experience.
“But if there’s no bottom rung on the ladder, it’s really hard to
leap up, right?” Brazill said.
She warned that failing to develop new career pathways could hurt
the economy in the long run by blocking young people from high
growth careers.
Brookings Institution senior fellow Martha Ross said Citi was
certainly right to focus on technology’s disruption of the labor
market. But she said the scale of that disruption is “too big for
philanthropy" alone.
“We did not handle previous displacements due to automation very
well,” Ross said. “We left a lot of people behind. And we now have
to decide if we’re going to replicate that or not.”
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