It’s that time of year. Graduation parties, commencement speeches, and thoughts about transition. Does your graduate know what they want to do? Have they secured their first job following graduation? If not, they aren’t alone.
The class of 2025 is entering into a complicated job market with an array of opportunities and some barriers to getting to them.
Let’s look at some stats from insidehighered.com Data: Trends in Hiring, 2025 Graduate Readiness for the Workforce
- Finding purposeful work is critical to Gen Z’s job satisfaction, and more than half say meaningful work is important when evaluating a potential employer.
- Engineering students are expected to be the highest paid of all the majors pursued by the class of 2025, earning an average of $78,731 this year.
- As of March, nearly 6 percent of recent graduates (ages 22 to 27 who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher) were unemployed, compared with 2.7 percent of all college graduates. The unemployment rate for all young workers (ages 22 to 27) is approximately 7 percent.
- Twenty-five percent of young adults are struggling to find jobs in their intended career fields; 62 percent aren’t employed in the career they intended to pursue after graduation.
- Hiring for college graduates is down 16 percent compared to last year, and 44 percent below 2022 levels.
- Starting salaries are up 3.8 percent year over year, outpacing inflation’s growth of 2.4 percent, as of March.
You see what I mean, it’s complicated…and there are bright spots too.
Purchasing the JWS Career Compass Program for your college graduate, is a gift that will pay dividends to come. Interested in learning more? Reach out to me today.
Julie Shipman, Career Coach – call or text 612.590.1659 or schedule time with me by using my scheduling link https://calendly.com/julie-shipman-jwsgroupllc.