'Convinced I was a terrible person': The brutal job hunt of a US college grad

Rebecca Atkins submitted more than 250 job applications over two years. Each one, she says, felt like it vanished into a void. "It was extremely dispiriting," said the 25-year-old law and justice graduate from Washington, D.C. "I was convinced that I was a terrible person, and terrible at working," reports AFP.

Atkins is one of thousands of recent college graduates facing an alarmingly tough job market in the United States. At 5.8 percent, unemployment for young graduates has soared to the highest level since November 2013 - excluding the Covid-era peak - according to official labour statistics.

Also Read: Microsoft lays off 830 employees in home state of Washington

What's more concerning is that the rate has consistently outpaced the national average, which remains below 4 percent, an unusual and troubling gap.

The hiring climate has only worsened in 2025. According to payroll data from Gusto, new graduate hiring is down 16 percent year-on-year, driven largely by slowdowns in white-collar sectors like tech, finance, and business information services.

Analysts attribute this to a combination of post-pandemic recalibrations and widespread economic uncertainty in the wake of President Donald Trump's return to office.

"The labour market for new grads has weakened steadily since 2022," said Matthew Martin, senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics to AFP. "You'd expect white-collar positions to be more insulated, but they're now exposed in a way that's quite out of the norm."

Martin's research highlights that job openings in professional and business services have dropped over 40 percent since 2021. Much of that decline, he says, can be linked to both over-hiring in the immediate post-Covid recovery and early impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) eliminating or transforming traditional entry-level roles.

While AI’s current macroeconomic impact remains up for debate, the fear it generates is real for job seekers. Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, points out that while AI adoption is still in early stages, it is contributing to employers' hesitation. “Firms are being cautious amid extremely high uncertainty, not just from technology, but also policy swings—on trade, tax, and labour - since the Trump administration took office again,” he told AFP.

The consequences are playing out across campuses and cities, where young people are burdened with record levels of student debt. According to the Education Data Initiative, average loan debt for a graduating student now stands at $29,550. And with the average cost of an undergraduate degree nearing $28,000 per year, many are emerging into a market that offers little immediate return on their hefty investment, the report added.

Katie Bremer, another 25-year-old graduate with dual degrees in Environmental Science and Public Health, says it took over a year to land a full-time job - outside her field - and she still had to babysit on the side. “I felt like I was constantly working,” she told AFP. “It seems overwhelming, trying to stretch a salary to meet all the milestones expected of adulthood.”

Both Bremer and Atkins reflect a growing sentiment among Gen Z graduates who are not just grappling with delayed employment, but delayed lives. Analysts warn that the labour market will take time to correct, and the current trajectory could prompt more students to reconsider their chosen fields.

"It’s likely to get worse before it gets better,” Martin said in the report. That sobering outlook leaves Bremer, like many of her peers, deeply concerned. “There have been times where I’ve thought: how is my generation going to make this work?”

Also Read: Tech Layoffs: TikTok plans layoffs as US e-commerce efforts falter