I was working odd jobs in my teens. I worked minimum-wage customer service jobs during the summers while I went to college. Tuition rates have outpaced wage rates, so I don't know whether that's possible anymore.
I got a degree in drafting and design just in time for my career to get cut short in 2009 when the housing crash caused that entire industry to stagnate. Ever since then, national policy seems to have been based on encouraging debt and new economic bubbles instead of sustainable growth based on savings. Mainstream economics fears savings as "stagnation,' but the consequence has been a reinflated housing bubble putting home ownership out of reach, and unsustainable economic prospects for people trying to start a career.
Now, A.I. hype is indeed making a mess of many jobs, not by necessarily being "better,* but because it's a hype machine. It's the dot-com bubble in high definition.