Going to school and getting a level was as soon as a ticket to white-collar success—however now graduates are up towards “ghost jobs,” AI brokers, and a fiercely aggressive labor market. Job-seekers are sending out purposes in droves to try to land a gig, and even individuals with a number of levels are having a tough time.
Job-hunters despatched out a median of 45 job purposes per thirty days in Might 2025, in keeping with knowledge shared completely with Fortune from employment platform Simplify, which tracked its a million job-seeking customers and 150 million purposes over the previous yr. That’s greater than double final yr’s common of twenty-two—a surge that exhibits simply how determined the job market has grow to be.
However the state of affairs was much more dire for professionals with a number of levels, regardless of going above and past expectations to realize the American Dream. Grasp’s college students despatched out a median of 32 to 60 job purposes per thirty days, whereas bachelor’s college students usually utilized to round 15 to 38 open roles.
Even those that studied faculty majors that after assured six-figure salaries are having to work more durable to land a gig. Pc science graduates are sending out a median of twenty-two to 51 purposes month-to-month, in comparison with non-computer science majors making use of to 21 to 41 gigs.
The fierce job market competitors for extremely profitable roles like pc science ought to come as no shock. Pc-programmer employment has dropped to its lowest degree since 1980—earlier than the web even existed—as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that AI can now even do the coding work of mid-level engineers. As a substitute of people competing with one another, they’re now vying for roles as AI takes over the work of entry-level jobs.
They might be making use of to ghost jobs
In addition to a particularly aggressive white-collar job market—as AI solely continues to return for extra entry-level roles—hiring managers aren’t making it any simpler on job-hunters: One widespread thread is candidates making use of to over 1,000 roles, solely to obtain radio silence.
About 81% of recruiters say that their employer posts “ghost jobs,” positions that both don’t exist or are already crammed, in keeping with a 2024 report from MyPerfectResume. Widespread HR reasoning for posting these pretend listings embrace: sustaining a presence on job boards after they aren’t hiring, assessing the effectiveness of their job descriptions, and wanting to construct a expertise pool for the long run. However job-hunters are fed up with being left at midnight.
“We regularly hear job-seekers saying, ‘I’m drained, I’m depressed, I’m determined,’ utilizing these very harsh phrases in terms of the job market,” Jasmine Escalera, a profession skilled for MyPerfectResume, instructed Fortune. “This is without doubt one of the the reason why they’re shedding religion in organizations and firms.”
The vast majority of job candidates say employers have flat-out ghosted them, in keeping with a 2024 Greenhouse report. And on the flipside, they’re additionally being “love bombed” in the course of the course of. Over half of candidates say interviewers showered them with extreme reward and flattery throughout hiring rounds, solely to be provided a low wage and unfit job title.
Now, Gen Z say their levels are a ‘waste of cash’
Recent-faced graduates are being frozen out of the workforce; about 58% of scholars who graduated inside the final yr are nonetheless on the lookout for their first job, in keeping with a latest report from Kickresume. The labor-market and hiring state of affairs has grow to be so unhealthy that greater than a 3rd of all graduates now say their diploma was a “waste of cash,” in keeping with a 2025 survey from Certainly.
Gen Z graduates are so massively unemployed, regardless of making up solely 5% of the workforce, that they’re even pushing up the U.S. jobless fee—having an “outsized” affect on America’s unemployment fee.
Now, the youngest technology of employees is particularly downtrodden by their prospects, with 51% expressing regret for getting their certificates, in comparison with 41% of millennials and 20% of child boomers.
