Employers still racing to hire cybersecurity and coding talent: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon

Speaking at the Business Roundtable’s CEO Workforce Forum, Dimon highlighted the ongoing skills gap in key industries, revealing that companies are struggling to find qualified candidates, Fortune reported.

"We are short on labor," he said. "We all have needs for cyber, we all have needs for coding, we all have needs for programming, we have needs for financial management and program management, things like that."

Dimon’s comments come as fears grow over automation and AI potentially displacing entry-level jobs.

Chris Hyams, CEO of job-search platform Indeed, recently warned that generative AI can handle a large portion of job tasks today, as reported by Benzinga. "For about two-thirds of all jobs, 50% or more of those skills are things that today’s generative AI can do reasonably well, or very well," he said. Hyams added that "pretty much every job is going to change if it’s not changing already."

CEO of Chase Jamie Dimon looks on as he attends the seventh "Choose France Summit", aiming to attract foreign investors to the country, at the Chateau de Versailles, outside Paris, on May 13, 2024. Photo by Reuters

Echoing those concerns, Dario Amodei, CEO of AI firm Anthropic, predicted that half of all entry-level white-collar jobs could disappear. "Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen," Amodei told Axios. "It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it."

Dimon, also a member of the New York Jobs CEO Council, emphasized the need for schools to better align curricula with the demands of the job market. He argued that students should be trained in high-demand areas like coding, cybersecurity, and financial management. However, he pointed out that many schools are failing to provide this specialized training, leaving graduates unprepared for these roles.

Dimon has long advocated for schools to be evaluated based on how well they prepare students for employment. "If you look at kids, they gotta be educated to get jobs," he said in a 2024 interview.

"Too much focus in education has been on graduating college... It should be on jobs. I think the schools should be measured on, did the kids get out and get a good job?"

The 69-year-old executive, who has previously criticized remote work in the banking sector, emphasized that at his $750 billion firm, character outweighs academic background when evaluating job candidates.

"It almost doesn’t matter to tell you the truth because you’re looking for smart, ethical, decent people," Dimon said in a Wall Street Journal interview.