When Jenny Flora Wells graduated from Ohio State University in 2021 with her master's degree in social work, she applied for 400 jobs. From that pool, she landed only three interviews. "I was told an MSW was a golden ticket and that I would be sure to find a job. I did everything by the book, had a 4.0 GPA, worked with career services, and quadrupled-checked my resume. I did everything right, and I still couldn't land a job," said Wells.
Wells now helps other recent graduates who are traumatized by their job search. She is a licensed social worker who practices in Los Angeles. While searching for a job, Wells landed an internship in OSU's career services department, which helped her build a specialty in the niche field of counseling job seekers. "What we are seeing from these younger generations is that they are working harder than ever but have nothing to show for it because no one will give them a job," Wells said.
What Wells experienced personally and now sees professionally – graduates confounded and mentally exhausted by the unforgiving job market — is confirmed by labor analysts and academics. "We are experiencing now a bit of a bifurcation of the labor market. The roles that need filling are often very heavily skewed towards those with less than a bachelor's degree," said Rachel Sederberg, senior economist and research manager at labor analytics firm Lightcast.
Sederberg, who is also an adjunct economics professor at Stonehill College, sees student frustration first-hand. Lightcast's data shows that job postings for bachelor's degree holders with two years or less of experience from Jan-May '23 to Jan-May '24 saw little difference in top occupations, industries, and skills demanded. However, there were 148,500 fewer job postings in that period for '24 than in '23.
For jobs that don't require a degree, openings are up slightly from last year, from 65.75% of postings in 2023 to 65.98% so far in 2024. However, according to Lightcast's data, 8 of the top 10 job postings in March were ones that did not require a college degree. "For jobs that don't require a degree, we don't have enough workers by any stretch, and they are having a great experience trying to find jobs," Sederberg says, adding that there is strong demand in the trades, retail, hospitality, and leisure.
Part of what Sederberg says we are seeing is a job market simply coming back down to earth for graduates, but hardly crashing. "We are by no means in a weak labor market; we got used to the incredible strength and chaos of the last two years," Sederberg said. She noted that there were juniors in college who had already snagged a job pending completion of their degree because so many companies ramped up hiring during the pandemic's immediate aftermath.
Not only is there a bifurcation between those who hold degrees and those who don't, but there also is a similar gulf in the degree skills market, with some jobs drawing scores of applicants while others sit unfilled, making the competition for the jobs recent graduates want even more intense. Cindy Meis, director of undergraduate career services at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa, says she is seeing this fragmented and uneven job market. There are a record number of job postings on platforms her office uses to help graduates connect with prospective employers, like Handshake, but the numbers don't tell the whole story. "The jobs out there don't always align with the wants and needs of the candidates. There is a mismatch between the needs and the talent pool," Meis said.
Employers are aware that nontraditional pathways to the workforce, not just college degrees, provide people with the skills and experiences to qualify for many jobs, according to Christina Schelling, Verizon's Chief Talent and Diversity Officer. Schelling says the 2024 job market for graduates is strong, but focusing too much on degree attainment alone is a mistake. Approximately 99% of Verizon's over 100,000 jobs do not require a college degree. She added that soft skills — like collaboration, critical thinking, and empathy — are more important than ever.
In the end, a graduate's job market prospects will vary depending on where they are, what they are applying for, and what they want. A single unemployment number isn't telling the same story anymore. "Unemployment trends are very sector, geographical, and level-specific," said Justin Marcus,