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Both remote work<\/a> and youth unemployment<\/a> are on the rise since the Covid pandemic \u2014 and the two trends are related, according to new research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. <\/p>\n The unemployment rate for young college graduates swelled to 5.6% in March 2026 from 3.6% in March 2019, the New York Fed economists wrote in a blog post<\/a> published Monday. They estimate that remote work can account for 64% of the recent increase.<\/p>\n “Employers may not want to hire fresh graduates onto distributed teams because it is more difficult to teach them the requisite skills from afar,” the authors said. <\/p>\n Read more CNBC personal finance coverage<\/p>\n While the impact of artificial intelligence on entry-level jobs<\/a> has received much attention recently, the expansion of remote work has likely had a greater impact on youth unemployment, they wrote. <\/p>\n The New York Fed researchers compared unemployment rates between inexperienced and more experienced employees across “remotable” jobs, such as software engineers and financial analysts, and “non-remotable” jobs, such as funeral home managers and nurses. They also used proprietary data from an undisclosed Fortune 500 company. <\/p>\n Very few Gen Z workers \u2014 6% \u2014prefer fully on-site work, a Gallup survey<\/a> from May 2025 found. Most, 71%, said they prefer a hybrid arrangement. <\/p>\n Industries with higher rates of remote work showed bigger jumps in productivity, according to 2024 research<\/a> by the U.S. Department of Labor. <\/p>\n But companies may be hesitant to hire inexperienced workers when they won’t be in the office, the New York Fed researchers wrote.<\/p>\n “Remote work has weakened incentives to hire young workers by impeding on-the-job training,” they wrote. <\/p>\n However, even companies that offer remote work typically require a few days on-site, which provides room for collaboration and mentorship, said Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University who studies remote work<\/a>.<\/p>\n “I don’t think there is any evidence this is slowing employment,” Bloom said. “Indeed, quite the reverse, as it’s easier for people to work and so labor supply looks to be rising.”<\/p>\n