{"id":9454,"date":"2025-07-14T16:14:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T16:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/9454\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T16:14:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T16:14:03","slug":"panicking-why-recent-college-grads-are-struggling-to-find-jobs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/9454\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Panicking’: Why recent college grads are struggling to find jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Azraiel Raines dreamed of working for the State Department, when she graduated from Idaho State University with a degree in global studies.\n<\/p>\n

But the State Department is not hiring. In fact it cut more than 1,300 jobs this past week as part of a broader government downsizing.\n<\/p>\n

\"Azraiel<\/p>\n

Azraiel Raines graduated from Idaho State University with a degree in global studies. She had hoped to work for the State Department, but took a job with her alma mater instead.<\/p>\n

\n Azraiel Raines \/\n <\/p>\n

\u201cMy very first avenue was poof, gone,\u201d Raines says.\n<\/p>\n

As graduation approached, she interviewed at law firms, but never got a call back. Applications for school district jobs also came up empty.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI was panicking,\u201d Raines says. \u201cWhat am I going to do if I don\u2019t have a job after graduation?\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Eventually, she landed a position in the counseling department at her alma mater in Pocatello, Idaho, where she oversees community outreach.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich is not something I envisioned myself doing,\u201d Raines says. \u201cBut it\u2019s using my skills in ways I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d be able to, and the people there have been really great, so it\u2019s helped a lot.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Economists say Raines is not alone among recent college graduates in struggling to find work. Although the overall unemployment rate is just 4.1%, few people are quitting jobs today, and employers are skittish about hiring.\n<\/p>\n

That means there are fewer opportunities for newly-minted graduates to get a foot in the door.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe labor market for recent college grads in 2025, so far, is among the most challenging in the last decade<\/a>, apart from the pandemic period\u201d says Jaison Abel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the federal government cutting jobs<\/p>\n

In addition to job cuts by federal government, tech companies and consulting firms are also scaling back after a period of rapid growth. And employers overall have been cautious about hiring in the face of uncertain trade and tax policies.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens, basically, in a time when there\u2019s uncertainty is that businesses tend to hold steady, wait and see,\u201d Abel says. \u201cSo hiring really kind of slowed.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Some employers may also be using artificial intelligence to perform tasks that entry-level workers used to do, although Abel suspects that\u2019s still fairly uncommon.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unlikely that that\u2019s really the main driver of these trends, in large part because the adoption of AI so far has been fairly limited,\u201d he says.\n<\/p>\n

Settling for lower pay<\/p>\n

Many recent graduates who do find work \u2014 including Raines \u2014 have had to settle for lower salaries than they hoped for. A survey by the job-search firm ZipRecruiter<\/a> found a larger-than-usual gap between the salaries college seniors hoped to receive and the paychecks they actually found once they finished school.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it says that the competition is fierce. The market is tight. And employers are hiring more cautiously,\u201d says ZipRecruiter career expert Sam DeMase. \u201cI think it\u2019s an employers\u2019 market at the moment.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a turnaround from last fall, when many firms were planning to ramp up their recruiting among college graduates, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. By the time NACE did a follow-up survey this spring<\/a>, hiring plans had been scaled back to roughly what they were in 2024.\n<\/p>\n

Nicole Hall, who\u2019s chair-elect of NACE and Dean of Students at the University of Virginia, says that means graduates have to be more flexible in their job searches.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the market is uniquely challenging, we\u2019ve seen students be very open to thinking about how they can apply their skills,\u201d Hall says.\n<\/p>\n

\"Although<\/p>\n

Although the overall unemployment rate is just 4.1%, many people are staying in their jobs and employers are cautious about hiring.<\/p>\n

\n Joe Raedle \/ Getty Images North America<\/p>\n

Getty Images North America\n <\/p>\n

She stresses that even if a graduate\u2019s first job out of school is not what they were hoping for, it can be an important stepping stone.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as they embark on that experience and it\u2019s something they leave later with greater skills and knowledge, that\u2019s something that\u2019s going to serve them well,\u201d Hall says.\n<\/p>\n

Research by Abel and his New York Fed colleague Richard Deitz has found that while many graduates have to settle for less challenging work right out of school, most find more rewarding positions within a few years.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably not best to judge the value of a college degree right after your graduate,\u201d Deitz says, \u201cbut to think of it as an investment you\u2019re making that bears benefits over your entire working life.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

While the unemployment rate among recent graduates is higher now than it was in previous years \u2014 close to 6% this spring \u2014 it\u2019s lower than the jobless rate among young people who don\u2019t have a college degree. That\u2019s nearly 7%.\n<\/p>\n

Raines is happy for now with her job at Idaho State University. While she\u2019s working, she\u2019s hoping to take advantage of the school\u2019s employee discount on studies towards a master\u2019s degree in public administration, just in case a job does open up at the State Department some day.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to give up on it just yet,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we\u2019re taking a little detour right now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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