The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has been as high as 5.8% this year, the highest since 2015 according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
MINNEAPOLIS — For many college students, the start of a new school year is a season of firsts, but many seniors are living these moments for the last time.
“The idea of not starting a school year in the fall seems super weird because that’s all I’ve really known since I was 5,” University of Minnesota senior Sam Boime said.
Boime will graduate next spring with a degree in special education. He is a little nervous about the transition into the workforce.
“I kind of try to avoid the conversation,” Boime laughed. “I have a lot of options and I kind of need to get on that soon.”
He knows a lot of recent graduates who can’t find a job in their field.
“It has definitely been a struggle. A lot of them have decided to do grad school and maybe wait a bit before finding a job,” Boime said.
And it’s not just students who are noticing this trend.
“It is softening a little bit,” U of M Career Services Executive Director Sara Newberg said.
One indicator Newberg and her team use to gauge the job market is to count the number of companies who are signing up for their fall career fairs on campus.
“We’re down just a little bit. I would say 10% across all sectors,” Newberg said. “I think we’re just seeing employers who are a bit more cautious in an environment that is uncertain.”
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York says the unemployment rate for recent college graduates has fluctuated this year between 4.8% to 5.8%, which is the highest unemployment rate since 2015.
That rate is higher than the overall unemployment rate, which has been a steady 4% this year.
The “underemployment rate” for recent college graduates has also gone up in recent months. This rate tracks the percentage of recent college graduates who are working jobs that don’t require a college degree.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, around 41% of recent college graduates are underemployed.
At Career Services they are offering students the latest techniques and technology to help them land their first job.
Newberg and her team have converted their in-person interview suites into virtual interview stations where students can find a quiet space to conduct job interviews with potential employers.
Career Services is also working with new forms of artificial intelligence to help students write resumes that match the jobs they are searching for.
“We want to use all these technical tools that we have. But we really want to emphasize the importance of those personal connections as well,” Newberg said.
Time will tell whether this downturn in the job market is a short-term issue, or part of a long-term trend.
Newberg says she has experienced at least three other “soft job markets” over the last two to three decades. She is encouraging students to be flexible and persistent.
“I would encourage them to consider positions that are maybe not exactly what they are wanting but are maybe adjacent, so they are not giving up on their long-term goals,” Newberg said.
“What we know is that students do better if they start doing something within the first six months. So, rather than waiting too long for the perfect job we would rather have students get started.”