The AI boom is reshaping entry-level hiring, tightening prospects for recent graduates and intensifying scrutiny of colleges’ return on investment. Employers have grown more downbeat: 51% rate the job market for seniors as poor or fair, the highest since 2020–21, according to NACE. Entry-level postings have fallen 35% since January 2023, Revelio Labs says, while U.S. employers announced 1.1 million job cuts this year, up 65% from a year earlier, led by tech restructurings tied to AI, per Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Tech and finance roles face outsized exposure to generative AI; nursing and skilled trades remain more insulated. Only 30% of the Class of 2025 has secured a full-time job in their field, down from 41% for the Class of 2024, Cengage reports. The shift is pressuring colleges to deliver work-based learning and industry ties. CUNY is rolling out systemwide career-connected advising and paid experiences for 180,000 undergrads. With families demanding proof of outcomes and student borrowers calling debt a “huge burden,” schools are racing to expand internships and co-ops—though smaller, non-urban campuses may be at a disadvantage. “Higher ed is ill-equipped for rapid change,” says Harvard’s Joseph Fuller, warning that traditional pathways are narrowing as AI compresses entry-level work.
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— Generative AI at Work
— The Future of Jobs Report 2023
— The College Payoff: More Education Doesn’t Always Mean More Earnings
