'A Black Hole': America's New Graduates Discover a Dismal Job Market (nbcnews.com)
- Reference: 0178557116
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/08/04/0048214/a-black-hole-americas-new-graduates-discover-a-dismal-job-market
- Source link: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/job-market-report-college-student-graduates-ai-trump-tariffs-rcna221693
> NBC News asked people who recently finished technical school, college or graduate school how their job application process was going, and in more than 100 responses, the graduates described months spent searching for a job, hundreds of applications and zero responses from employers — even with degrees once thought to be in high demand, like computer science or engineering.
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> Some said they struggled to get an hourly retail position or are making salaries well below what they had been expecting in fields they hadn't planned to work in. "It was very frustrating," said Jensen Kornfeind, who graduated this spring from Temple University with a degree in international trade. "Out of 70-plus job applications, I had three job interviews, and out of those three, I got ghosted from two of them."
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> The national economic data backs up their experience. The unemployment rate among recent graduates has been increasing this year to an average of 5.3%, compared to around 4% for the labor force as a whole, making it one of the toughest job markets for recent graduates since 2015, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released Friday. "Recent college graduates are on the margin of the labor market, and so they're the first to feel when the labor market slows and hiring slows," said Jaison Abel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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> Across the economy, hiring in recent months has ground to its slowest pace since the start of the pandemic, with employers adding just 73,000 jobs in July, according to data released Friday... Tech workers have been some of the hardest hit in a slowing job market, with more than 400 employers including Meta, Intel and Cisco announcing more than 130,000 jobs cut in 2025, according to [2]tech job site TrueUp .
The article cites an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab who believes early adoption of AI "is also likely driving some of the cuts and leading employers to rethink hiring plans in anticipation of AI's future role." So besides federal policy changes, the article blames "the emergence of AI, which some companies have said they are using to replace certain entry-level jobs, like those in customer support or basic software development."
Seven months after graduating, one CS major told NBC News he'd applied for 100 jobs, and got one job offer — for the 4 a.m. shift at Starbucks.
[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/job-market-report-college-student-graduates-ai-trump-tariffs-rcna221693
[2] https://www.trueup.io/layoffs
It's almost as if (Score:5, Insightful)
Starting a massive trade war while chasing away tens of billions of dollars of tourists so that you could appeal the racist boomers while constantly threatening to crash the stock market by firing the head of the Federal reserve is not in fact sound economic policy.
I'm sure it'll all turn around in 2 weeks. Right around the time the Epstein documents get released.
And other news Ghislain Maxwell has been transferred to a club fed prison and newsmax is now telling their viewers that she's innocent. Pardon in three. Two. One....
Re:It's almost as if (Score:5, Informative)
I think it is more subtle than a trade war, it is a class war. Now we have a National Sales Tax. This is something that Rich people have wanted for a long time.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You again painting the Big Beautiful Economic Picture black for no reason at all.
Yes, there are tariffs, but they are taming inflation as revenues come in, and make Americans richer because of all that windfall payment mountain - 100 billions!!11! HUNDRED BILLIONS US DALLARS!111!1 - every month.
And there are now plenty of jobs that will be available to new AI graduates.
They can go to the factory shop to assemble great American automobiles, like the [1]GREAT American FIAT 124 clone [x.com].
They can go to the fields to
[1] https://x.com/GOP/status/1951060331888889869
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
No, the anti-MAGA are. You fell in line behind a nice old man with a brain rot, then you threw him under the bus for a cardboard cutout and you lost everything. The MAGA stuck behind a nasty geezer with a brain rot, won and destroyed your illusions about "America". We saw you for what you truly are, little crying pussies who have no spine. But Jesus, look at how loud your mouths are.
The AI promise? (Score:3)
Is this because companies are trying to leverage as much AI as they can these days?
We're told that AI will improve everyone's life and give us all more leisure time -- but I'm getting the impression that "leisure" is equated with "unemployed" by those making the predictions. With AI taking over so many roles that often required a degree I think it will only serve to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, with no trickle-down or benefit to those who can't use it to their own advantage.
Only time will tell I guess.
The hustle economy (Score:2)
> We're told that AI will improve everyone's life and give us all more leisure time
I don't think anyone credible is saying that. At best the argument is that productivity is increased. Sometimes people connect the dots and argue that this will make our service economy cheaper. But at no point did capitalism promise you that you won't have to hustle anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
During the Great Depression, unemployed were classified as vacationing.
No, not yet (Score:1)
this is just the economy cratering. Mostly because of the uncertainly from Trump's idiot trade wars. We're a ways off from AI slamming into the economy.
Re: (Score:2)
The tech market in particular is saturated with victims of layoffs dating back to 2024. Your explanations are inaccurate.
Re: (Score:2)
"We're told that AI will improve everyone's life and give us all more leisure time -- but I'm getting the impression that "leisure" is equated with "unemployed" by those making the predictions."
Correct.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a stick to hit hard workers with, work harder or better replaced. Just like offshoring / outsourcing was.
America is great (Score:4, Funny)
The economy is being carefully managed by Wharton School graduate.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
My guess is that Trump bribed and cheated his way through Wharton.
Re:America is great (Score:4, Insightful)
Why would one need to do this in an MBA outfit?
You don't attend one to learn things, that's what you do in undergrad. You don't attend one to do research, for that you attend a program that lets you do a PhD.
The MBA outfits aren't schools, they are clubs where you make acquaintances to do business. Hence the large membership fee.
Re: (Score:2)
So, MBA's are where Rich people join clubs and make acquaintances and do business for a huge fee? That almost sounds like waste, fraud, and abuse. Has Trump tried to cut funds to Wharton yet?
Re: (Score:2)
no, because to him the definition of waste, fraud, and abuse is money spent on education, research and public well-being. Remember, his business is a club for shady deals.
Life can be hard (Score:1)
Undergrad send me homeless for a period of my life where I lost everything. That is how student loans, being handicapped, and living in the wrong area for work all mix together. (I went over to Seattle, and they refuse to hire me for Target as being overqualified. Wasn't a problem in NY.)
> Seven months after graduating, one CS major told NBC News he'd applied for 100 jobs, and got one job offer — for the 4 a.m. shift at Starbucks.
In a strange twist of fate, it's possible to use the [1]Starbucks College Achievement Plan [starbucksbenefits.com] to learn some marketable skills.
[1] https://www.starbucksbenefits.com/en-us/home/education-opportunity/starbucks-college-achievement-plan/
Re: (Score:2)
Seattle?
You can start improving your left by moving to a low cost of living area. Hint: from where you are, go east.
Question (Score:2, Insightful)
Is this the "winning" I keep hearing about?
Re:Question (Score:5, Insightful)
As long as a quarter of the population can be brainwashed all of the time (51% of the voting population), then the propaganda machine can grind on and tell you that the job numbers are great, that inflation is low, that there is peace in the world, the GDP numbers are the bestest, and that Trump is the "Greatest" president of all time.
Re: (Score:2)
It is. When the orange rapist talks about how "we are winning", that "we" does not include you.
Solution: rig the numbers (Score:2)
"Trump fires lead official on economic data as tariffs cause market drop"
[1]https://www.bbc.com/news/artic... [bbc.com]
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg3xrrzdr0o
Re: (Score:2)
No no, the numbers are great, the greatest numbers we've ever seen. It's all the fault of those woke business owners who are deliberately not hiring people just to try and make Trump look bad. No doubt those woke employers were put there by Biden as well and it's also all his fault.
Re: (Score:2)
I guess sarcasm does not work. To quote Trump: "If it is good, I get the credit, if it is bad, it is Biden's fault". If you are a trump supporter, and you believe that, I think you are dumb as a rock.
Re: (Score:2)
Wars, depopulation trends, the collapse of the Yen carry trade, and other factors conspire to weaken economies worldwide. It's quite exceptional that the American jobs market has done as well as it has.
Try training for a trade in demand. (Score:3, Informative)
Plumber, electrician, welder, mechanic, and a whole bunch more.
See Mike Rowe's take on this:
[1]https://youtu.be/HJRyMQiTJF4 [youtu.be]
[1] https://youtu.be/HJRyMQiTJF4
Re: (Score:2)
For that matter grafting fruit trees is quite an art.
What Research? Oh, and I Read the Article! (Score:3, Insightful)
What a huge sample size, " and in more than 100 responses". Wow, NBC really did their research; 100 chosen responses.
Last year the stories were about how Gen Z having a hard time finding work was due to their unrealistic demands about pay, working hours, perks, and so on.
White collar work, especially in IT, is on the way down. If the now extinct or going extinct jobs were jobs were fulfilled by reading SO and pasting crap together, or reading articles and creating summaries, yeah those are done, except for when particular experience is required. Sometimes knowledge of an industry is required to get the work correct.
How many bots are posting here?
Other metrics (Score:3)
A 5.5% unemployment rate doesn't seen so bad for the average probability of a single recent graduate finding a job. In a good year, the unemployment rate would be 2-3%. Viewed from the employment perspective, an average 94.5% probability of finding a job compared to 97-98% didn't seem so bad.
The two missing metrics are (1) the percentage that has given up on finding a job and therefore distorts the true unemployment rate and (2) the underemployment rate that counts graduates that technically have a job but not in their field or not close to the expected wages. That's what we should be talking about.
Of course, now that the government people in charge of regarding these metrics are being fired for political reasons (i.e., because they didn't publish the desired numbers), good luck on finding metrics that we can have confidence in.
Re: (Score:2)
If America really cared about their citizens, the Unemployment rate should consist of All Americans divided by the number who work. Getting that number to one would be amazing.
Re: (Score:2)
It should be "number of residents who are legally and physically able to work" (ie. no minors ineligible to work, no disabled persons, no elderly unable to work, etc.) in the calculation.
Re: (Score:1)
Agreed. It seems to me that about 50% are under employed or not employed. I am looking at that number right now as a huge, untapped natural resource in America right now If we can get that number down to zero, America would be booming with economic growth. it seems to me.
Just stick AI buzzwords on yr resume (Score:1)
...works for struggling companies.
Productivity is leaping ahead. Business lags. (Score:2)
If it's to be believed that productivity has sky rocketed because of AI. Then the problem lies with business/government being able to take advantage of that massive boost.
Every advancement in productivity since fire and the wheel has ultimately resulted in jobs expansion with people being able to do more.
The problem here as I see it is that the business have stayed the same. It's just that the effort required to achieve those business goals has plummeted. What hasn't happened yet is businesses capitalisi
come on (Score:1)
Come on, half the Americans have high paying, easy jobs as professional protestors. What more can you wish for?
education or indoctrination? (Score:2)
The news from higher education invariably falls into one of two categories:
- Increased politicisation
- Lowered academic standards
Is this an accurate reflection of reality? I have no idea. But from the perspective of an employer, looking for evidence that a candidate is educated (as opposed to indoctrinated), degrees are looking increasingly worthless.
Dont' worry (Score:5, Funny)
The government will continue to fire people until the official numbers are better, exactly like the people voted for!
Re:The people didn't vote for this shit (Score:5, Insightful)
I tend to blame younger males, younger than Gen-X. the ones who get their information from podcasts, and shit on information that is credible like on 60 minutes. They seem to like lies and liars.
Re: (Score:3)
Support for notorious liars like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson seems to skew older. Boomers and early Gen X. A lot of them seem to be getting their information from Facebook, and shitting on information that is credible.
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, there's a lot of women and party bros too. It's uniformly across America. There are several stages yet to go from Denial to Acceptance.
Re: (Score:2)
GenX here. I just want to address your comment about jobs and retirement.
I'm retiring this year, at age 54. I'll get 80% of my pay for life. I've also got right at $1M saved up ($512K in retirement funds, the rest not).
That does not include the $500K or so my wife has saved up, as she continues to work at her $165K/year job.
It also does not include the $100K in our 9 year old's college fund.
We are in ZERO danger of losing our house which, has only $365K due on it. I could pay that off in cash right now, and
Re: (Score:2)
How so?
What else do I have to do?
Re: (Score:2)
Unless he's being sarcastic, he seems to have said that you're sane and level-headed. But hey, sarcasm.
Re: (Score:2)
It's hard to tell what most of you are saying anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
As a boomer I still worry about 13 things which could happen.
1. Misinformation campaigns.
2. Stock market crashes.
3. Mass unemployment.
4. Social security and medicare going away.
5. Run on the banks.
6. Deflation followed by hyperinflation.
7. Private equity buying out publicly traded companies and removing them form large index funds, and the index funds crashing.
8. Natural disasters increasing because of bad environmental policy.
9. Fees to do anything other than sleep.
10. The takeover of state governments by
Re: (Score:1)
I worry about two of those.
Re: (Score:2)
I too would not say I know what he's talking about when he imagines that many will lose their homes. 40% of homeowners are mortgage-free.
I will say, though, that the industrial revolution was very effective at taking away farms that had been in families for generations. Banks wormed their way in and then foreclosed. Of course family farms are part subsistence but also businesses, with large recurring expenses which homes do not have. So I'm pretty sure he's wrong. Not sure if I can be certain. Perhaps
Re: (Score:2)
I think it is true that those with relatively nothing will be happy to take everything they can from everyone else, should they acquire the power to do so. The only thing that will guard against that is, hopefully, such people will "get some stuff" in the course of acquiring that power, and thereby lose interest in stealing all our shit.
As for the jobs problem....my plan is for my child to have around $1M in a trust when he turns 18. I know, "plans" and all. But I could drop a half million in there right n
Re: (Score:2)
This post is wildly optimistic. I mean zero danger of losing the house is one thing, but believing there will still be colleges in 9 years? Oh wow.
Re: (Score:2)
While I certainly think we can look at trends within certain generations and identify problems, your post has several gross oversimplifications and does nothing constructive.
Re: (Score:1)
> A handful of mean-spirited boomers and a ton of mean-spirited Gen x did sure but voter suppression is the only reason their a guy one
> The Gen xers are dumb. I mean real dumb. I mean the boomers I get they're going to be dead soon and most of them are already retired. Classic I got mine fuck you Boomer behavior.
> And I get that the older Gen x that did all this have the same I got mine fuck you attitude. But they don't got theirs. They still have jobs and they don't have solid retirements lined up. Never mind the fact that they're 401ks are about to get looted by the same private equity ghouls that stole everybody's pensions.
> This is the fuck around part in about 5 or 6 years to find out hits during Trump's third term. That's when they all lose their houses. I've said it before but about half the people reading this are going to be homeless by then.
> I'm sure they'll blame trans girls playing field hockey and Hunter biden's laptop but that won't get them their houses back.
Ummmm, go fuck yourself.