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Home > Sangre Celestial > Job market for college grads: Worst in a decade. It’s not all AI’s fault
Podcast: Sangre Celestial
Episode:

Job market for college grads: Worst in a decade. It’s not all AI’s fault
Category: Arts
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2025-07-29 19:00:00
Description: It used to be that if you went to college and worked hard, you could find a job and place in the American middle class. But that school-to-career pipeline appears to be breaking down. Now 6.6% of college-educated 20 to 24-year-olds are unemployed and actively job-hunting, according to the Labor Department. That’s the highest unemployment rate for young college grads in a decade, apart from COVID pandemic lows. The new Broken Marketplace Study examines why young people are struggling to launch. It was commissioned by the Schultz Family Foundation. Rajiv Chandrasekaran , managing director at the Schultz Family Foundation, tells KCRW, “What's going on: All of the systems and people who are meant to really help guide young adults on their path from school to work are really fundamentally misaligned, in many cases, offering them outdated guidance. And as a consequence, it's leading many young people to find a mismatch of the skills they possess and what employers are seeking.” He adds that simultaneously, some employers are seeing what jobs, particularly entry-level, can be done by artificial intelligence. The tech is also the first to filter applications submitted by real-life prospective employees — many of whom are using AI to fill out their applications and resumes in the first place. And so, people must tailor their materials to catch an AI’s attention. The survey also found that employers want candidates with skills that are often not taught at high school or college levels. “Companies increasingly are of the position that they're not going to invest in just taking young people who come in with general knowledge and providing them with many of the skills that they need for certain types of positions. The onus now is increasingly on that young person,” Chandrasekaran says. He continues, “This is one of the critical mismatches … you have educators who are much more focused on helping to provide young people with a broad base of learning, and they view the real responsibility of job-specific training being on the employer. Half of employers we surveyed said schools aren't providing enough skill-building programs to create job-ready candidates.” It’s important to note, he says, that young people are being creative in their search for solutions — 70% of survey respondents are using social media like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to explore educational and career opportunities. “They're not waiting for adults to catch up. They're trying to figure it out on their own, and many of them say the content they're engaging with is actually inspiring them and helping them. Yet we also know that sometimes that content can be less constructive in their lives. So it's a double-edged sword.” Every occupation that exists will be impacted by AI, Chandrasekaran says. And so, he advises that people need to bring specific skills when entering the job market, and everyone must be lifelong learners because their knack today might not be relevant five to 15 years later.
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