Recent graduates are entering an uncertain labor market, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates has reached 5.6%. and innovation is requiring students to rethink their skillset.
According to data published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,the civilian unemployment rate has been trending upwards, reaching 4.3% in April, but is still noticeably below the rate for recent college graduates. According to CBS News, the recent graduate employment movement can be attributed to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).
Despite the rising national trend in unemployment, Texas added 46,800 nonfarm jobs in March, with Gov. Greg Abbott calling it “the best business climate in the nation,” in a May 6 press release.
However, many recent graduates are facing a different economic reality with 41.5% of recent college graduates being classified as underemployed nationally by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, meaning they are working in jobs that do not require a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Haiyong Liu, department chair of finance and economics and a professor of economics, said the class of 2026 is facing a different job market compared to four or five years ago when they first enrolled at Texas State.
“It’s not a recession-level labor market by any means; it’s still a market characterized by caution, low hiring, and greater competition of a desirable position,” Liu said.
Liu said he observed that many employers are posting open job positions but are taking longer to hire, creating an impression that opportunities are out there, but offers are just slow.
According to Forbes, one in seven job postings remain active for more than 30 days. These jobs are classified as “ghost jobs,” where jobs are posted or remain posted even if the company is not currently hiring for the role, leading to confusion for applicants.
“I think entry-level positions [are] increasingly [requiring] prior experience, internships, neotechincal skills or industry certifications, that once were considered optional,” Liu said.
Felix Quayson, assistant professor of practice in organization, workforce and leadership studies, said the current labor market employers are laying people off because of the benefits of AI.
“They want to use AI to make the profits and revenue and so forth,” Quayson said. “So they’re laying off people, but at the same time they actually need people to work these AI machines, so now they’re like we kind of made a mistake by laying off all these people.”
Quayson said employers are going to start hiring based on how the employees benefit the company and how well they work with AI.
“So now a lot of entry-level positions are being devastated by AI, so the thing that employers are actually looking for are the human skills,” Quayson said. “Some people call it soft skills, but I call it human skills because those are essential skills that even artificial intelligence machines … don’t possess that kind of intelligence.”
Soft skills are personal attributes or interpersonal people skills that allow someone to dictate their communication with others and how to navigate different environments. Quayson said college students on any level learn soft skills throughout their college career, but they have to learn how to put them into practice.
“AI doesn’t have emotional intelligence, right? So you, as a human being, you as the professional have to exercise your discretion of emotional intelligence, communication, so forth,” Quayson said. ”Those interdisciplinaries [are] what makes you more advanced than artificial intelligence
Marissa Bruno, a business administration sophomore, said the pressure to secure professional experience early has made the job market feel discouraging at times.
Bruno said it’s hard to get experience early on, with employers dismissing her applications for entry-level jobs and internships because she is a sophomore.
Although Bruno said human resources will remain dependent on interpersonal communication or soft skills, beginning a professional career now feels more competitive than ever.
“I hate to say it, but AI really is eliminating entry-level positions. Especially for jobs that deal with accounting and finance,” Bruno said. “It’s a struggle because AI replacing entry-level jobs, but upper management jobs require years of experience.”
According to Quayson, the old days when a bachelor’s degree guaranteed a job are over, with the college career transition changing; students should approach it with a general plan.
“Every job is different. So once you go out there, they can train you on the hard skills, but the soft skills, which is the human essential skills, are what employers are basically emphasizing over and over,” Quayson said.
According to Liu, most of the desirable jobs require more than just a college degree.
“One thing I often time trying to provide some counsel to our graduating seniors is that all you need is one job,” Liu said. “You don’t worry about, you know, the statistics on how many job postings are in central Texas, in the industry; all you need is one job. You build on that.”
