New grads are struggling to find jobs, experts say there's a few reasons why

Fortune

New grads are struggling to find entry-level positions. Leadership reporter Brit Morse explains how AI, tariffs, and economic uncertainty are reshaping the job market.

Transcript

00:00The entry-level job market, especially for new graduates these days, is in a really tough place.

00:06You've probably seen graduates lamenting about sending hundreds, if not thousands, of applications

00:11without hearing a response, without getting an interview. The labor data is not quite matching

00:17the sentiment that new graduates are feeling. When we look at the unemployment rate from the

00:22recent Bureau of Labor statistics data, we see that it's around 4.2 percent, which is really low.

00:27That said, there are a lot of cracks happening in the labor force right now. The unemployment rate

00:32for those that are around 22 to 27 is actually upwards of around 5.8 percent, according to the

00:38Federal Reserve of New York. Economists told me that it is a coalition of events happening really at the

00:44same time. We're now entering a period where employees are not finding it worth it to leave

00:48their jobs, and therefore there isn't as much turnover. So there aren't that many entry-level

00:53jobs out there for people to start with. And there are many reasons why business owners are pulling

00:57back on hiring right now. Companies are looking for ways to make their workers more productive.

01:04It also means that they're looking for ways to use AI to perhaps not hire more people.

01:10Then we also have to talk about President Trump and the recent tariff announcements.

01:14We're going to bring our car industry back. We're going to bring our chips back. We're going to bring

01:18so many things back to our country, including pharmaceuticals and drugs. And the thing that's

01:24going to get us there is tariffs. Companies are struggling to make long-term plans because of that.

01:30It's difficult to say you're going to want to hire 20, 30, 50, a thousand new workers when you don't know

01:36what your outcomes are going to be in the next three to six months. Economists and career experts tell me

01:41that new graduates may have to look in industries that they previously haven't considered. Maybe not

01:46the largest tech firms that have the best place on your resume, but companies that can get you started

01:52and get you off the ground in your career.

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