‘Did I do enough?’ College grads face a tough job market.

Tyler Johnson was proud to be one of almost 6,500 students graduating from the University of Delaware in May. But what should have been a celebration was marred by his worries about being unemployed. It was incongruous with what he thought the end of four years of college would be.

The communications major had worked on the student newspaper and done an internship at a local publication the summer before. But no employers were interested in him.

“It kinda took a hit on my self-esteem,” Mr. Johnson says. “It’s like, ‘Did I do enough? Am I actually going to make it?’”

Mr. Johnson is one of a number of recent college graduates facing a tough job market. Even in the best of times, job hunting takes patience and determination. But 2025 has delivered an especially challenging environment for new grads, with tariffs causing uncertainty, federal government jobs gone or frozen, and more concern about the impact of artificial intelligence on entry-level positions vital to getting a foot on the career ladder.

In November, employers initially planned to hire 7.3% more people from the class of 2025 than they had from the previous year’s class. But by April, that number had adjusted to a 0.6% increase, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Additionally, 11% of employers said that they plan to reduce hiring overall. Typically, college grads fare better than average – particularly in a downturn. That is not the case for the class of 2025. New grads have about a 6% unemployment rate, compared with 4.2% overall. It’s the first time that’s been the case since 1980, according to Oxford Economics.

But it’s also not the Great Recession – yet.

“It’s a dip, but not a collapse,” says Allison Danielsen, CEO of Tallo, a digital career guidance organization that connects graduates to companies. “We’ve seen similar slowdowns before, especially during economic uncertainty or major shifts like automation.”

The rise of generative artificial intelligence, she adds, is just such a major shift.

The timing is concerning, she says, because many recent college graduates made decisions about their education in a different job market. Now, they are entering a workforce that is changed. It has caused a mismatch that has made it harder for new graduates to land on their feet.

In a recent Tallo survey of more than 2,000 people ages 18 to 30, 62% of respondents said that they were not working in a field that they intended to. Cost-of-living expenses and student loan debt ranked as two top reasons. Additionally, the same survey found that 1 in 4 said that they couldn’t find a job in their intended field.

“The labor market is changing faster than higher education can keep up. That’s why we’re seeing such a big gap between what students study and what employers actually need,” Ms. Danielsen says. “Relying on a degree as a stand-in for skills just doesn’t work anymore.”

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates increased to 5.8% in the first quarter of 2025, the highest it has been since 2021. Additionally, the underemployment rate, which is the percentage of college graduates working in a field that does not require a college degree, rose to 41.2%.

Ms. Danielsen, some economists, and those who help students at universities collectively agree that the job market is evolving and that changes in federal policy are tough for young people transitioning from school to full-time work. Observers also agree that white-collar entry-level jobs, which were previously stepping stones for new grads, are being automated by AI.

That would seem to fall in line with what Dario Amodei, CEO of AI startup Anthropic, predicted in a recent Axios interview. Mr. Amodei said he thinks AI will wipe out half of entry-level jobs, potentially pushing the unemployment rate to 10% to 20% in the next five years.

“We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming,” he told the publication.

In Maryland, graduates at the state’s flagship university in College Park are finding regional and local work uncertainty, says Allynn Powell, director of the University Career Center. She spends the year helping students find internships and preparing for work postcollege.

“I think they are aware and kind of walking into the world of work, being mindful that ... so many of the kinds of stabilities that they thought might exist just aren’t there right now,” she says of students she’s encountered. Ms. Powell says that this is a perfect time for new graduates to lean into the skills and experiences that they gained as students to help them pivot. This could be temporarily switching career goals, she says.

Her office offers students a blueprint for ways to enter the job market, such as creating a robust online presence on sites like LinkedIn, learning how to tell a story that highlights their strengths, making sure that they are geographically flexible, tailoring their résumé to specific jobs, and leaning on their network of friends, mentors, and family.

“If nothing else, what we hope they spend these four years doing ... is learning how to fail forward and then pick themselves up and try it again a different way,” Ms. Powell says. 

She believes that the sooner a student connects with the career center, even during their freshman year, the better off they will be after having internships and other experiences. 

Instead of a new job in a new city with a new place to live, Mr. Johnson moved back home to Clayton, a town in central Delaware, home to fewer than 4,000 people. His roommates will be his mother and younger brother. Currently, he has no car and very little money.

“I’m just trying to remain positive,” Mr. Johnson says. Some of his friends are taking the summer off before looking for work. His mother isn’t pressuring him to find a job immediately, although he’s been looking. His targets right now are fast food, retail, and waiting tables.

“I can’t even say that I just want a summer job. I want a job in general,” he says. “I want to work to have money in my pocket and save so I can make my way to what I want to do.”