For Gen Zers, finding work after college is often a painful slog
(CBS NEWS) – CBS reports that Angel Escobedo started looking for work a year and a half ago, even before completing his college degree at Saint Xavier University in Chicago. Now, with less than a week to go before graduation and having applied to more than 150 jobs, he’s still searching.
Escobedo’s predicament illustrates the challenges that many young Americans, even those with impressive academic records, are having entering the nation’s workforce amid a broad decline in job listings and as they compete with more experienced people.
“They’re sort of missing out on the ability to jump into the labor market,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. “It’s not a new phenomenon, but it is a concerning phenomenon.”
For young adults eager to start their careers, the obstacles can seem daunting. Escobedo, 22, has had multiple professional internships during his college career and also completed a management training program at Harvard Business School. The Illinois resident, who is seeking a job in finance or business operations, said he has found the job search process “very discouraging,” noting that he’s open to just about any kind of employment.
Gen Z job applicants, like other workers, are also having to navigate a quickly changing job-hunting landscape in which employers increasingly use AI and self-recorded video interviews to screen candidates. Job seekers told CBS News that while it’s easy to apply for work, finding ways to stand out is hard, while the new tech adds a new layer of complexity.
Gorick Ng, a Harvard career adviser and University of California, Berkeley, faculty member, said the stakes for Gen Z are high. If they can’t get the right experience early on, they could struggle to catch up professionally and financially.
“If the pool of entry-level opportunities continues to dry up, then it’s going to be ever more challenging for this generation to show certain brand names, certain job titles and certain bullet points on their resumes, which is only going to make that next job more challenging to get,” he said.
Slowdown in hiring
Getting your foot in the door has always been tougher for young workers, and current labor market conditions aren’t making it any easier. The overall hiring rate, which has been declining since 2022, has fallen to just over 3%, below its historical average.
Hiring is muted due to uncertainty about the U.S. economy, including the government policy environment and tariffs, Gould told CBS News. “There’s this sort of sitting tight for employers and for workers right now, not wanting to make any sudden moves because of the uncertainty,” she said.
The nation’s overall unemployment rate in September was 4.4% — less than half the 9.2% rate for 20- to 24-year-olds, according to government labor figures.
Even when early-career employees succeed in landing a coveted position, they may face barriers climbing the ladder. That’s because, with more seasoned employees often staying put these days because of economic uncertainty and as employment turnover slows, Gen Zers have fewer opportunities to switch jobs — a common route to gaining more responsibilities and higher pay.
“Your salary is all about growing or negotiating leverage,” Ng said. “And so when you look for another position, one of the easiest ways to ask for more money is to have made more money in the past.”
Alan Gonzalez, a 23-year-old resident of Malden, Mass., said he’d be willing to take a lower-paying job in his field just to kick-start his career. Since graduating from UMass Boston in May, he has been working as a restaurant server while looking for a position in digital marketing.
“Despite having a lot of internship experience and real-world practical experience that I can apply, including my degree, it has still been very difficult to even get an interview opportunity,” he told CBS News.
Eager to exercise his creativity but without any job offers in hand, Gonzalez has also started his own clothing brand, HOJA Apparel, which he describes as a “lifestyle streetwear meets streetwear hybrid” focused on high-quality and design. He’s working to grow his social media presence to promote the brand, with an official clothing drop planned for next year.
“Right now, the priority is experience,” Gonzalez said.
Some industries pose their own challenges when Gen Z job-hunters come knocking. For example, employers in fields such as accounting, engineering and technology typically have fewer job openings for junior employees than senior-level roles, according to data from career services firm Indeed.
“It has become progressively harder for almost anyone to secure jobs in those areas, and this is especially true for younger workers,” Cory Stahle, senior economist in the Indeed Hiring Lab, said in an email. “Fewer opportunities also mean that entry-level workers are becoming more likely to compete against an increasing number of mid- or senior-level workers in the process as well.”
As of October, an average of around 30% of software development jobs listed on Indeed were for positions with senior titles, versus around 2% for roles with junior titles. Similar discrepancies exist for data analysis and tech positions.
Many of the challenges of finding work are not unique to members of Gen Z, of course. Technology has long made it easier for people to submit a job application. But the latest technologies are also upping the competitive ante, according to Ng.
“AI and tech tools have made it easier to apply for internships,” he said. “But whenever something gets easier, the bar only gets higher, and the job application is really no different.”
Ng advises job candidates to get back to basics. That means trying to build relationships with potential employers, starting their job search early and making a concerted effort to get in front of a company’s decision-makers.
Escobedo said he’s now putting an emphasis on old-school networking to get employers’ attention. “I’ve told my peers, the whole thing that it takes a village to raise a child, now it takes a village to get a college student a full-time role.”
