CHICAGO — As graduation ceremonies conclude at universities throughout Illinois and across the nation, a new wave of graduates is stepping into the job market. However, many are curious about the current landscape they will face as they seek to begin their careers.
Recent data from ZipRecruiter indicates a decline in the proportion of entry-level job listings, suggesting a more competitive environment for those new to the workforce.
In March, the New York Federal Reserve reported a 5.6% unemployment rate among college graduates aged 22 to 27, which outpaces the overall unemployment rate for all workers.
Despite some media outlets describing the job outlook for new graduates as “brutal,” Tom Gimbel, Chairman of the Board for the American Staffing Association, offers a slightly more optimistic view, labeling the situation as “not great” but not dire.
Gimbel, whose son recently secured a sales position after graduating, noted, “Sales is one area where companies continue to hire. While the job market may not be ideal for recent college graduates, it is certainly better than it was following the 2008 financial crisis and more favorable than after the dot-com bubble burst in 2001.”
“I think that is a field that companies are still looking to hire. Is the job market brutal? It’s not great for kids right out of college but it’s better than it was in ’08 after the great financial crisis and I think it’s even better than it was in ’01 after the dot-com bubble burst,” he said.
Gimbel says what’s happening is out of the control of this year’s college graduates.
“It’s a macroeconomic problem of big companies that have done the layoffs. We just saw here in Chicago Groupon laid off 400 people. We saw that Facebook/Meta has done it. We saw that Google’s done it. So it’s happening across the spectrum but that doesn’t mean their aren’t jobs. That’s really what I want to get across is that it might be in a company you’ve never heard of. It might not be in technology, it might even be doing the job you thought you were supposed to do getting that degree. But there are jobs available.”
Gimbel says from 2021 to 2023, a lot of tech companies over hired.
“Everybody wants to say it’s all AI is the problem. And that is an issue, we can do work faster and more efficiently,” he said. “Now with the macroeconomic climate, the war in Iran, what’s happening in Ukraine still, companies are saying okay we’ve got this advent of technology with AI and we’ve over hired, we just don’t need these people.”
As for the application process, AI is playing a role.
“Technology itself has been screening out resumes for probably coming on more than a decade. It’s just gotten more evolved with what you can ask it to do and the communication it has with the candidates. I do think one of the positives is as we get more AI, is there’ll be more direct communication with job seekers.” And he says that feedback could help people apply for the right job.”
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