\n Yet there are some cautionary signs beneath the hood.\n <\/p>\n
\n Business decision-making has been paralyzed by the chaotic trade war<\/a>. Entry-level hiring<\/a> is down. And some leaders of the artificial intelligence industry say that the fast-moving technology could wipe out white-collar jobs, if it\u2019s not already starting to do that.\n <\/p>\n \n But even as the overall labor market looks relatively healthy<\/a>, economists say this is the worst market for new college graduates since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Recent grads are finding that it takes considerable time to get hired, leaving them unemployed and saddled with student debt for a frustratingly long time.\n <\/p>\n \n \ufeffFor the first time since record-keeping on the topic began in 1980, the unemployment rate for recent graduates (those 22 to 27 years old with a bachelor\u2019s degree or higher) is consistently higher than the national unemployment rate, according to Oxford Economics.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult jobs market for college graduates, and it will take time to work out of this,\u201d said Matthew Martin, senior US economist at Oxford Economics.\n <\/p>\n \n Since mid-2023, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates has climbed by 1.6 percentage points \u2013 triple the national increase, according to Oxford Economics.\n <\/p>\n \n The unemployment rate for those aged 20 to 24 is nearly twice as high as the national average at 8.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This picture is more concerning for young men, who grapple with an unemployment rate of 9.6% compared to 6.7% a year ago.\n <\/p>\n \n After scrambling in 2021 and 2022 to hire workers, businesses are taking a much more cautious approach today as they navigate the murky trade war and grapple with high interest rates.\n <\/p>\n \n The number of people collecting unemployment checks climbed in mid-May to a fresh four-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday. That\u2019s a signal it\u2019s taking longer for people hunting for work to find a job.\n <\/p>\n \n Entry-level hiring is down 23% compared to March 2020, exceeding the 18% decline in overall hiring over the same period, according to professional networking platform LinkedIn<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201c\u2019No hire\/no fire\u2019 is a difficult state of play for workers looking for a new job, but it is supportive of lower inflation, higher productivity and persistent economic growth in the long-run,\u201d Thomas Simons, chief US economist at Jefferies.\n <\/p>\n \n Jenna Macksoud aggressively hunted for her first job after graduating from American University in late 2023. For more than a year, the 23-year-old from New Jersey applied to many jobs \u2013 often five to 10 positions per day. But she struggled to even hear back from prospective employers.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cLooking back on it, it was definitely traumatic. It started to weigh heavily on me,\u201d Macksoud told CNN in a phone interview. \u201cIt felt hopeless.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The lengthy job search often takes a toll on new graduates. Worker confidence among Gen Zers in the United States recently tumbled to record lows, even lower than at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to LinkedIn.\n <\/p>\n \n For Macksoud, the pressure was only amplified by the fact that, like many college graduates, she had a pile of student debt totaling about $70,000.\n <\/p>\n \n After running into a dead end with government and NGO-based jobs, she eventually widened her search and landed a job working in business development for an IT and cybersecurity company.\n <\/p>\n \n Macksoud urged today\u2019s graduates not to get disheartened by rejection.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a numbers game. You have to change the mindset from being discouraged that you\u2019re not getting anywhere, to attacking it and being persistent,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Finding a job could be even harder with the lightning-fast advancements made by next-generation AI models.\n <\/p>\n \n Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI giant Anthropic, warned that AI could wipe out<\/a> half of all entry-level white collar jobs and lift unemployment to 10% to 20% within the next one to five years.\n <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-2210102820.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"Job](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-2159381250.jpg\")
<\/p>\n