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Surprising group are living in fear as they struggle to get hired despite strong job market
Surprising group are living in fear as they struggle to get hired despite strong job market

Daily Mail​

time28-06-2025

  • Business
  • Daily Mail​

Surprising group are living in fear as they struggle to get hired despite strong job market

New graduates are struggling to find work despite recent data indicating a steady job market. For those graduating college it is the most difficult time in a decade to get that first foot on the career ladder, according to the latest figures. Young Americans are complaining that employers want years of experience even for entry level positions. Others are saying that they are having to apply for over 60 jobs before finally landing a tentative position. Overall national unemployment remains reasonably low at 4 percent, but this rises to 6.6 percent for new college graduates, Labor Department numbers show. The figures show a rise from the 6 percent unemployment rate for recent graduates the same time a year ago. It is part of a wider trend that has seen entry-level hiring fall by a staggering 17 percent since April 2019, according to data from LinkedIn. The bad news for new graduates comes despite a stronger-than-expected jobs report earlier this month which indicated that the labor market was holding steady amid the economic turbulence caused by President Donald Trump's tariffs. The economy added 139,000 jobs in May, above the Dow Jones estimate for 125,000. But despite the better than expected numbers, it was still a retreat in job growth from April, signaling remaining uncertainty about where the US economy is headed. Although young graduates tend to have a higher unemployment rate than those who have been in the workforce longer, the gap is only widening. The employment conditions for recent college graduates have 'deteriorated noticeably' in the first quarter of the year, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This included college graduates aged 22 to 27 who have been in the workforce slightly longer. Unemployment for this group averaged 5.8 percent in the first three months of the year. That is the widest gap between young graduates and the broader population in 35 years, according to the study. Economists are blaming the general slowdown in hiring that is hitting new graduates hardest because layoffs for those already employed have remained low. This means it is harder for those without work to find it as companies look to tighten their belts in the face of economic headwinds. 'Businesses are hunkering down, and that creates a challenge for young workers entering the labor market for the first time,' Cory Stahle, an economist at jobs site Indeed, told the Wall Street Journal. Employers are less willing to take a punt on hires with less experience and thinner skill sets at the moment, Stahle explained. 'I'll think, "I could be good at this, but I haven't been given a shot yet,"' recent graduate Kirby Child told the Journal about her job search struggles. Child said one of the biggest barriers is that employers now want years of experience even for entry level positions. 'I don't have those three to five years of experience, and it feels really hard to get that,' the 22-year-old lamented. Zara Anwar, who graduated with Child from Lehigh University this year said she has applied for over 60 jobs before finally landing a position. However, her employer has pushed back her start date more than once. 'I worry for myself. I can only hope my job actually does start in August, but I truly don't know,' the cognitive science graduate told the publication. Guy Berger, director of economic research at the Burning Glass Institute think tank, agreed that a hiring slowdown is the biggest factor making it hard for graduates to find work. The situation could be even worse than the statistics let on since most of this year's college and high-school graduates are not yet registered in the unemployment statistics yet. The national unemployment level also managed to remain low in May because fewer people were registered in the workforce. The work habits of Gen Z — those born between 1997 and 2012 — are increasingly under scrutiny. Bosses are firing Gen Z in record time, a recent study revealed.

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