Is AI Ruining the Entry-Level Job Search?

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1:42Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. You know that quote where people say, like, if you do the same thing over and over and get the same result, like, you're insane? That's basically how I would describe the job search. Bumi Omisore is 22 years old. She'd just graduated with a degree in public policy from Duke University. And ever since the beginning of her senior year, really for even longer, she'd focused on one thing, getting a job. I've been thinking about, okay, where am I going to move? Like, what am I going to be doing? Bumi started looking for positions in August and cast the net wide.

2:21Her passion was for education policy, But she applied for jobs in research, government affairs, even finance. But by graduation day, earlier this month, Bumi still didn't have anything lined up. I only got a first-round interview in, it might actually genuinely be in April. So a lot of silence from places you applied to? Absolutely. If not silence, just a rejection email from a no-reply address.

2:54Bumi was a good student. Worked hard, networked. It didn't seem to matter. Bumi's friends were going through it too. Lots of rejection, lots of ghosting. And after sending out hundreds of apps, Bumi started to realize something. Maybe she wasn't the problem. To end up in this position my senior year where I can't find a job, not even because I'm getting to the final round or I'm getting interviewed and, you know, there's not a fit. I'm not even getting to talk to anyone at the company has made it so that I feel like, okay, maybe there's something else here. Like maybe it's not that I'm just not qualified enough.

3:34Maybe there's a confounding variable that's blocking me from being able to reach that next step. According to the job search site, Indeed, a junior level job postings fell 7 % last year. AI and cost cutting measures are allowing firms to eliminate more and more workers. Americans with four-year degrees now make up a record 25 % of total unemployment. This year, graduates are entering one of the most confounding job markets in memory. Tech companies are cutting thousands of jobs, in part to offset major investments in AI. Labor department statistics show new jobs are being created, but many of them are concentrated in particular sectors like retail, warehousing, and healthcare.

4:17And competition for jobs that require a college degree is getting fiercer. Lightcast, a labor market analytics company, found that while college completions in the U.S. rose by 54 percent from 2004 to 2024, entry-level jobs designed for those graduates grew by just 42 percent. I've had a lot of adults who have jobs say to me, oh, well, you know, like, you seem like a great candidate. You seem like this. And I'm like, that's really great to hear. I just wish that the people saying it were the recruiters at the jobs I was applying to.

4:56I'm Sarah Holder, and this is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. Today on the show, this graduation season, what's going on in the entry-level job market? We hear from recent college graduates and reporter Maren Kogan about why it's so hard to land your first job right now.

5:17So Maren, how would you describe the job market for new college graduates right now in one word? Tough. Really tough. That's journalist Maren Kogan. It's a confluence of factors that are making this job market tough for everyone. But I think it is falling especially hard on recent graduates. A few months ago, Maren sent out a survey asking young people to share their experiences trying to land their first job. More than 250 people replied. Maren reached out to more than a dozen of them to hear more. And she wrote up her findings for Bloomberg Businessweek, the stories behind the labor statistics.

5:57So the economy has continued to grow over the last several months. But there are signs that companies are being more cautious in terms of who they're hiring. And this could be due to uncertainty. I think a large part of it is due to uncertainty around the future of AI. And what you see is this really intense squeeze on entry-level positions. So there are just fewer entry-level opportunities than there are college graduates seeking them out. And I think that squeeze also means that people who are sometimes mid-career or more senior career are looking for those jobs that would traditionally go to entry-level workers.

6:33And it's making it just extremely difficult for people who don't have a work history to find that first job. So more competition for a dwindling number of entry-level jobs. On some level, it's just a math issue. There are just more people graduating with college degrees than there are new jobs to sustain them. We've seen this in recent years where underemployment has become a huge problem. So people who have degrees but are working in jobs that don't require their degrees. And very recently, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the unemployment rate for recent college graduates actually went higher than it is for all other workers, which is a really troubling sign.

7:10It traditionally has not been that way. It's not like it's easy to be looking for a job at any age right now. Experts describe it as a low-hire, low-fire economy, one where people are reluctant to leave their jobs and employers seem to hold all the cards. It does seem like there has been a bit of a shift in the power differential. I think you saw in 2020, for example, there was a move to remote work, there was more flexibility, and there was more of this culture of employees really pushing for change, certainly unionizing in a number of different industries. And I do think you've seen over the last couple of years, many of those remote work policies have sort of swung in the opposite direction.

7:51And I do think you're seeing some of this with people who are mid-career and more senior career as well, where there's this sense of the job market is quite tight right now. But Maren says that dynamic can make it even harder to break into the workforce. It's not super easy for people to get a job at any level. And so that inherently gives more power to the employers and inherently makes people who are applying for jobs feel like they're in a weaker position, especially if those would-be employees don't really have a prior work history as these college students do. Well, how does this compare to previous moments in the job market that could be described as tough?

8:29I'm thinking of, you know, post-2008, for example. Yes, this is a great question, because when I published this piece about this year's college grads and what a difficult time they're facing, I had several readers write to me and say, hey, what about millennials? We had it bad, too. And I know, as someone who graduated right into the financial crisis, it was really tough. So this is not to say that this is a world historic event. I do think it is different. There is a sense, I think, around this introduction of AI into every facet of our lives that things are changing in a way that might be permanent.

9:05And we don't entirely know yet what that change will be. Yeah, it seems like the way that AI is impacting these entry-level jobs right now is sort of two-pronged, right? Companies are looking at the uncertainty that AI is causing in the economy and saying maybe we should pull back on hiring just in case. And then there are some companies that are looking at AI as a potential replacement for some of these entry-level jobs. Right. It's a third thing too, I think. It's also that it's kind of broken the hiring process. Like AI has enabled people and college students in particular to apply for so many more jobs than they would have been able to in the past.

9:40So one thing I heard is people applying to 50, 100, sometimes several hundred jobs or internships. And so you're able to send more applications out, but then the companies are now overwhelmed with so many applications. They start using AI to filter the applications. You might not hear back from, you know, 99 out of 100 of them, but it's the only way to do things. And I think the result is just a lot of frustration on both sides of the equation. The first job that I got an interview for, I had emailed 20 people at the company. Bumi Omosore again. Only one person responded. And I was lucky enough that that was a recruiter who was willing to sit down and talk to me.

10:20And I asked him, is there anything with my resume? He was like, no, actually, I think you have a really good resume. And I was saying to myself, so the application isn't the problem. It's just sitting in a bank somewhere until an actual person knew my name to go look for it. It's generally just a matter of like forcing yourself to not get discouraged. because if you do, that's low-key game over. That's Tolu Dapo Adeyemo, who just graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They studied media, advertising, and public relations. And when they started looking for post-grad opportunities, they had a strategy.

10:58I told myself, well, the job market is crazy, so let me do a fellowship or an entry-level kind of internship thing and maybe apply to those. that maybe the barriers of entry will be lower. Barriers of entry were not lower. Not lower at all, actually. There was one fellowship opportunity in particular Tolu applied to for students looking to pursue communications and marketing. I was excited about it. At least a couple of my friends had already done it. And I remember asking one of them for advice. He looked over my application. He said, oh my God, this is so good. It sounds very aligned with all the things that you studied and that you're interested in.

11:42You would think. You would think. Tolu didn't get an interview. And so I think it was like one of many like discouraging experiences. I was like, this situation is like more dire than I thought it was. And I can't just strong arm my way through it by being the most qualified on paper. I think what's difficult is that this class is graduating into a period of potentially major, major change. But the rules to follow or the advice given for how to get a job really hasn't changed. So there's a bit of frustration on their end of vacancy that the world has changed so much. But the way you still get a job is relatively the same.

12:24After the break, why colleges, job seekers and employers could be forced to rethink what it takes to succeed. Running a small business takes everything you've got. But with Chase for Business, you're not alone. They bring together local support and a broad range of resources to more than 7 million customers. With a deep understanding of your day-to-day needs, they provide products and guidance built to help you thrive. Right now, earn$500 when you open a new Chase Business Complete Checking account for new business checking customers with qualifying activities. Offer expires June 18, 2026. Chase Business Complete Checking has the flexible tools you need to accept payments, make deposits, and manage your finances with confidence.

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14:46Journalist Maren Kogan has spent the last six months speaking with people from all over the U.S. looking for their first jobs. College seniors, recent grads, and postgrads from a range of mid-tier and top-tier universities responded. Her conversations weren't necessarily representative of the entire entry-level job-seeking population, which includes more than two million people graduating with four-year degrees this year in the U.S. But one common theme that stood out to Marin was that the fields that were considered sure bets just a few years ago don't seem so secure anymore. It wasn't an issue of a number of liberal arts grads who couldn't find jobs in the liberal arts and were surprised by that, as might have been the case maybe 10 or 15 years ago, right?

15:32A lot of these students were doing degrees in information systems, cybersecurity. There are a number of new programs that are designed to sort of train people to work in the AI era. This feeling that the quote-unquote safe paths to employment are changing has got students like Bumi Omosore asking existential questions. Everyone's dealing with this. It would be one thing if I was the only one amongst my friends to not find a job. Because, you know, if I'm the problem, then I can be the solution. That means that there's something wrong with my materials, my interviewing skills, whatever. But I have friends who, I mean, we're talking like full scholars at Duke or at Yale or at Harvard, people who have been working at the White House, who have published research.

16:17They're not even getting a first-run interview. What she told me was, I don't feel that having gone to Duke and having done all these things actually is a guarantee anymore. Nothing is a guarantee anymore. And that is something I spoke to students at Stanford, University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, for example. The university is known for producing great graduates in their field, and they feel like it doesn't necessarily make a huge difference in this job market when everyone's competing for the same thing. The Federal Reserve of New York found that last year, 42 % of college graduates aged 22 to 27 were underemployed, doing jobs that don't require the degrees they spent years earning.

17:00That's the highest level since the pandemic. And I've seen some longer term studies suggesting that if you are underemployed the year after you graduate, you are likely to be underemployed 10 years later. So some people are able to get out of that and get into their chosen field in advance and are doing stuff that requires their degree. But a lot of people stay stuck. Well, is it a different story for those who don't have a college degree? So not, you know, college seniors looking for their first job, but, you know, 18 to 22 year olds who did not pursue college. How are they faring? There's a lot of debate about whether the four-year degree is still a good value, a good bet.

17:38It is still true that if you graduate with a college degree, your chances of getting a good paying job and sustaining that through your career are much higher than if you didn't. For people who don't have a degree, and I think you're seeing more of this, especially among people who are skeptical of the four-year degree, people are going into trades. I have been interviewing people who are working in the trades right now, and there is a lot of excitement and energy over the trades being the sort of one thing that isn't going to be completely replaced by AI. But I don't see that whole equation flipping overnight and everyone going and picking up a trade and no one going to college anymore.

18:13I think the bigger question is going to be, what are the colleges doing to prepare their students for the economy as it exists now? For example, some of the students I spoke to were going into these master's programs that were called human-computer interaction, for example. And this is just designed to teach them how to work in a world where AI is integrated into everything we do. I think those sorts of programs will be helpful, but I just think it's difficult to know. I think it's going to take us a few years to really understand what the future will look like and how different it will be and adapt from there.

18:50And unfortunately, these students are sort of caught right in the middle of this really difficult pivot point. Are there any misconceptions about today's job market for young people that you complicated through some of these interviews? There's a sense that this generation doesn't want to do any menial work and that they feel entitled to doing only work that they consider to be at their level or satisfying. That is not what I experienced talking to these students at all. These students were like, let me get someone coffee. Let me make copies for someone. Let me do any sort of grunt work I can.

19:32And it doesn't even have to be in my chosen field. I'm willing to branch out. I'm willing to try something new. I think that will be a huge asset to this generation. They are so used to disruption. They are so open to trying new things. And I think that is something that is really an advantage they have over the rest of us. This generation is really open to trying new things and doing whatever they can to sort of get a foot into their chosen career. That's true of Tolu Dapo-Adeyemo, the UNC grad, who kept on applying for jobs throughout senior year and became more and more willing to make compromises about what kind of job they were looking for.

20:11First I was like, I don't know, it's not really my field. I was like, you know what, screw it, it's fine. So when a friend suggested Tolu apply for a job as a college advisor for high schoolers, they went for it. I got my offer letter end of February. I remember getting it I was just like wow I can like breathe like I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders regardless of how I feel about how much money I'm making I feel like I at least have something to support myself with to start the rest of my life with and I don't have to beckon with my parents oh my god oh my god guys like no I did cheer even though side of my field, I am quite passionate about hanging forward, right?

20:56In the realm of college admissions, like the amount of people who I sent my common up essay to, my supplemental essays to, like, if it weren't for them, I genuinely don't know if I would have gotten into this school. And so getting to like, genuinely like be who I needed for someone else, that's, I think that's going to be a really fulfilling experience. And I am excited for it. Maren said while some of the people she spoke with over the past few months are still looking for jobs, others have finally figured it out. Like Bumi. When we spoke, it was the day before her Duke graduation. I got a final interview for a job I found out the other day, and it's literally the same day as my graduation.

21:41Oh my God, it's tomorrow. I know. And they were like, if you can't do this time, then we just have to give it to somebody else. And I was like, OK, so I'm that like the market is so dire that I'm trying to figure out how to fit in a final round interview the same day as I graduated from college, which is crazy. My graduation's at nine. The interview is supposed to be at 12. We'll see what happens. Bumi made it in time for her interview. And a week later, she let us know she'd gotten an offer for a different job as a risk analyst in Chicago, the city she was hoping to land in. I had a mentor of mine ask me, like, what's plan B?

22:21And I thought it was a funny question because for me, like, there is no plan B to being employed. You know what I mean? Like, I have to get a job. That's not really an option.

22:37This is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access to all of Bloomberg.com, subscribe today at Bloomberg.com slash podcast offer. If you like this episode, make sure to subscribe and review The Big Take wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps people find the show. Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.

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