New graduates are having an especially tough time landing a job right now: The share of unemployed Americans that are new to the workforce is at a 37-year high.
Why it matters: It’s a sign of how reluctant companies have been to hire amid ongoing economic uncertainty over tariffs and policy.
By the numbers: 13.4% of unemployed Americans in July were “new labor force entrants,” those looking for jobs with no prior work experience, including new high school and college graduates.
It’s the highest number since 1988, as the Baby Boomer generation was flooding the job market.
It’s even worse than that because, from one account, my grandparents said it didn’t used to be like this from their personal experience. That was way more than enough to be completely qualify in the past, and your purchasing power was much greater even if you’re not convinced on the qualification part. Purchasing power has been dropping for decades.
I think we should be asking ourselves how years of training and thousands of dollars ended up not being enough to get a job that can do more than buy avocado toast.