Gen Z Graduates Face 58% Unemployment Rate, 3x Less Likely to Have Job Lined Up

Gen Z’s suspicion that the job hunt is harder than ever may be true—about 58% of recent graduates are still looking for full-time work, compared to 25% of earlier graduates, like millennials, Gen Xers, and baby boomers before them. Young job-hunters are also three times less likely to have a job lined up out of school, as AI agents take over and entry-level roles are shrinking for Gen Z workers.

Gen Z is slammed for complaining about how tough it is to work five days in-office, or even get a job in the first place—but their suspicions may be true. Research has confirmed, their older millennial critics had a far easier time locking down a gig to begin with.

About 58% of students who graduated within the last year are still looking for their first job. Meanwhile, just 25% of graduates in previous years—such as their millennial and Gen X predecessors—struggled to land work after college. It may be tempting to think Gen Z just isn’t as hungry for work as previous generations. However, the study suggests that previous generations really could walk straight into a job much more easily than young people today.

In fact, nearly 40% of previous graduates managed to secure full-time work in time for their graduation ceremony—but just 12% of recent Gen Z grads can say the same, making these young job hunters three times less likely to have something lined up out of school.

The journey from classroom to career has never been straightforward. But it’s clear that today’s graduates are entering a job market that’s more uncertain, more digital, and arguably more demanding than ever.

Today’s young job-seekers are up against AI agents and a tightening white-collar job market—to the point where they’re trying to jump-start their careers in unconventional ways.

It’s no secret that landing a job in today’s labor market requires more than a fine-tuned résumé and cover letter. Employers are putting new hires through rigorous assessments to even consider them for a role. It’s undeniably a tough job market for many white-collar workers—about 20% of job-seekers have been searching for work for at least 10 to 12 months, and last year around 40% of unemployed people said they didn’t land a single job interview. It’s become so bad that hunting for a role has become a nine-to-five gig for many, as the strategy has become a numbers game—with young professionals sending in as many as 1,700 applicants to no avail. And with the advent of AI, the hiring process has become an all-out tech battle between managers and applicants.

Part of this issue may stem from technology whittling down the number of entry-level roles for Gen Z graduates; as chatbots and AI agents take over junior staffers’ mundane job tasks, companies need fewer staffers to meet their goals.

Skyrocketing tuition costs and a bleak white-collar job market have made Gen Z’s situation so bad that 4.3 million young people are now NEETs: not in education, employment, or training. And while things look tough, it’s become an international issue. The age-old promise that a college degree will funnel new graduates into full-time roles has been broken.

Universities aren’t deliberately setting students up to fail, but the system is failing to deliver on its implicit promise.

Young people are desperately chasing jobs with donuts and waitressing gigs. While baby boomers may have chased a job by walking into an office and handing over their résumés directly to a hiring manager, Gen Z are having to get crafty to gain employers’ attention.

One young marketing hopeful, knew he wouldn’t get far handing over his cover letter in-person, so he hatched a plan. When he was 25, the job-seeker posed as a delivery driver, handing over boxes of donuts with a secret memo attached on the inside. The note read “Most resumes end up in trash. Mine—in your belly,” along with his résumé and LinkedIn profile. He won over some employers, landing at least 10 interviews from the stunt.

Another job-seeker took to waitressing at a marketing conference after failing to land a job through traditional methods for six months. couldn’t find work after graduating from a top university, so she volunteered to clean up glasses at one of the most well-known marketing and sales events. During her breaks, she’d float her CV by at least 30 to 40 people, asking for feedback, but hoping for an opportunity. Shortly thereafter, she landed a job.

“When you’re a graduate, you think everyone’s going to say yes to you and things are going [to] work out. But it’s a matter of building up resilience. You need to keep reassessing your process so that every no gets you closer to that next yes.”