Recent university graduates find it difficult to find jobs: NPR

Azraiel Raines dreamed of working for the State Department, when she graduated from the State University of Idaho with a diploma in global studies.

But the State Department does not recruit. In fact, it reduced more than 1,300 jobs last week as part of a broader government.

Azraiel Raines graduated from the Idaho State University with a diploma in global studies. She had hoped to work for the State Department, but rather took a job with her Alma Mater.

Azraiel Raines

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Azraiel Raines

“My very first avenue was gone, missing,” said Raines.

As the graduation, she interviewed in law firms, has never received a recall. Applications for jobs in the school district were also empty.

“I was panicking,” said Raines. “What will I do if I have no job after graduation?”

Finally, she won a position in the advice service of her Alma Mater in Pocatello, Idaho, where she oversees community awareness.

“Which is not something I planned to do,” said Raines. “But it is to use my skills in a way that I did not think they could, and people were really great, so it helped a lot.”

Economists say that Raines is not the only one among recent colleges graduates to fight to find work. Although the overall unemployment rate is only 4.1%, few people leave jobs today and employers are capricious of hiring.

This means that there are fewer opportunities for newly created graduates to have a foot in the door.

“The labor market for recent university graduates in 2025, so far, is among the most difficult in the last decade, with the exception of the pandemic period,” said Jaison Abel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

It is not only the federal government that cuts jobs

In addition to job cuts by the federal government, technological companies and consulting firms also reduce after a period of rapid growth. And employers overall have been cautious about hiring in the face of uncertain trade and fiscal policies.

“What is happening, basically, at a time when there is uncertainty is that companies tend to hold stable, to wait and to see,” explains Abel. “So, hire a little slowed down.”

Some employers can also use artificial intelligence to carry out tasks that entry -level workers did, although Abel suspects what is still quite rare.

“It is unlikely that it is really the main engine of these trends, largely because the adoption of AI has so far been quite limited,” he said.

Be content with the lower remuneration

Many recent graduates who find work – including the raines – had to be satisfied with lower wages than they hoped. A survey carried out by the ziprecruit job research company revealed a gap greater than usual between the wages that the elderly of the college hoped to receive and the pay checks that they really found once they finished the school.

“I think that says that competition is fierce. The market is tight. And employers are more carefully,” said Sam Demase, ziprecruit career expert. “I think it’s an employers’ market at the moment.”

This is a turnaround last fall, when many companies planned to reintegrate their recruitment among college graduates, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. As Nace made a follow -up investigation this spring, hiring plans had been roughly reduced to what they were in 2024.

Nicole Hall, who is elected president of Nace and Dean of students from the University of Virginia, says that it means that graduates must be more flexible in their job research.

“Because the market is particularly difficult, we have seen the students be very open to think about how they can apply their skills,” said Hall.

Although the overall unemployment rate is only 4.1%, many people remain in their employment and employers are cautious about hiring.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images from North America

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Joe Raedle / Getty Images from North America

She points out that even if the first job of a graduate outside the school is not what they hoped, it can be an important springboard.

“As long as they embark on this experience and that it is something that they leave later with greater skills and knowledge, it is something that will serve them well,” says Hall.

Research from Abel and his colleague from the New York Fed, Richard Deitz, found that if many graduates were to be satisfied with less difficult work as soon as school left, most of them find the more gratifying positions in a few years.

“It is probably not better to judge the value of a university degree just after your graduate,” says Deitz, “but to consider it as an investment you make that benefits from the advantages of your whole professional life.”

Although the unemployment rate among recent graduates is higher now than in previous years – almost 6% this spring – it is lower than the unemployment rate among young people who do not have a university diploma. It’s almost 7%.

Raines is happy for the moment with her work at Idaho State University. While she is working, she hopes to take advantage of the presentation of school employees on studies in control in public administration, just in the event that a job will one day open in the State Department.

“I don’t want to give it up yet,” she said. “But we are taking a little detour right now.”