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The class of 2025 is entering a stagnant labor market where hires have declined to levels not seen since 2014, long-term unemployment has grown by 33% year-over-year, and inflation continues to trend well-above optimal levels. This means many of America’s latest graduates will likely face a prolonged period of time unemployed attempting to navigate a highly competitive labor market in which leverage has drastically shifted from employees to employers.
There is plenty to love about the summer season—warm weather, four federal holidays, and plenty of opportunities for a vacation or staycation. But for this year’s college graduates, summer is a time of heightened trepidation as many attempt to turn their newfound academic credentials into full-time employment. Unlike their predecessors, the class of 2025 is entering into a stagnant labor market where hires have declined to levels not seen since 2014, long-term unemployment has grown by 33% year-over-year, and inflation continues to trend well above optimal levels. This means many of America’s latest graduates will likely face a prolonged period of time unemployed attempting to navigate a highly competitive labor market in which leverage has drastically shifted from employees to employers.
But just how bad are labor market conditions for the class of 2025? In 2021, according to data by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 77% of college freshmen that enrolled in a four-year baccalaureate program majored in 10 major fields (listed in the chart below). Between 2022 and 2024, those fields increased their employee rosters by an average of 208,000, calculated as the change in nonfarm payrolls for the top five occupations hiring graduates in each of the 10 fields. In 2025, those 10 fields have an average of 661,000 prospective graduates seeking to use their degrees within a related role. In other words, the labor market has not grown nearly fast enough for employers to accommodate the number of graduates seeking full-time positions.
This mismatch in growth could have significant consequences for the labor market in the long term. Graduates who are not able to land roles immediately will be forced to contend with an economic climate of higher prices as well as slower growth. Additionally, once conditions within the labor market improve, these graduates may also find themselves competing with other workers who have been separated from the labor force, increasing the backlog of workers needing to find jobs before the economy can reach full employment. And should these graduates manage to secure employment unrelated to their education or interests, it would drive a growing problem of underemployment which has afflicted graduates over the past several years leading to decreased productivity and workforce satisfaction. In such a volatile climate, staffing companies could have a rare opportunity to expand their talent benches by introducing an entire generation to a different form of work that allows them to build their skill sets and experience to find a position that aligns with their academic credentials.
As adoption of AI tools in the workplace continues to grow, companies should be aware that to harness AI-driven efficiency gains, they may need to overcome hesitancy on the part of workers who are worried about the technology and what it could mean for their careers.
With artificial intelligence (AI) tools continuing to make waves in the workplace, research from the Pew Research Center reveals mixed feelings among U.S. workers about the potential impact of the technology.
About half of U.S. workers (52%) are worried about the impact of AI use in the workplace in the future, exceeding the share who feel hopeful (36%) or excited (29%). The sense of worry could stem from job prospects, as only 6% believe the use of AI in the workplace will lead to more job prospects for them in the future, compared with 32% who envision fewer job prospects in the future due to the technology.
There are benefits to the technology. For workers who use AI chatbots, the tools are more helpful in accomplishing tasks more quickly (40% extremely/very helpful) than in improving the quality of their work (29%). The top tasks for which workers use AI chatbots are doing research about a topic (57%), editing written content (52%), or drafting written content (47%). So far, few workers report their employers either encouraging (12%) or discouraging (8%) the use of AI chatbots for work, as a far greater share report their employers do neither (50%).
As adoption of AI tools in the workplace continues to grow, companies should be aware that to harness AI-driven efficiency gains, they may need to overcome hesitancy on the part of workers who are worried about the technology and what it could mean for their careers. Training about the tools could be a solution—of the 51% of workers who reported taking a class or getting extra training in the past year, only a quarter (24%) reported undergoing training related to AI.
