Irene Chang, 21, studied engineering in college because she enjoys solving problems. She also wanted to major in something she thought would lead to a stable career.
"I wanted to work a job right after college," she says.
But that has been a challenge. Chang graduated in May from Georgia Tech with a bachelor's degree in industrial and systems engineering. She says she started applying for entry-level data analyst roles about a year ago, while she was still in school. Chang estimates she has submitted around 450 applications since last September and has had about 19 interviews — so far she hasn't gotten any offers.
Jacqueline Kline, 25, is in the same boat. She graduated this past spring from Florida State University with a master's degree in communications.
Kline says she did everything she could to land a job after college. She networked, completed multiple internships and started applying for jobs before she even finished her degree.
So far, she says, she has applied to more than 500 entry-level jobs since last December.
"It's hard knowing that I'm doing everything that I can to be successful and feeling like that's not enough," Kline says.
Both Kline and Chang say they think AI may be part of the reason that finding a job in their respective fields has been such a challenge.
"I feel like the entry-level skills that you have, they're important, but also something that AI can do very efficiently," Chang says.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the unemployment rate for recent graduates — which it defines as 22-to-27-year-olds with a new bachelor's degree or higher — was 5.7% as of June, more than the rate for all workers, which stands at 4.1%.
Many of those recent graduates think AI is to blame for their employment struggles. This year, in a survey from ZipRecruiter, 47% of them said AI had already affected hiring in their field.
But is AI really the problem, or is it more complicated? Here's what economists have to say.
Stanford University economist Erik Brynjolfsson says AI is impacting the labor market for entry-level roles.
"AI is not the whole story, but it's part of the story and the evidence is building," he says.
Using payroll data, Brynjolfsson and his co-authors found that since late 2022 — when large language models like ChatGPT started popping up — early-career workers ages 22 to 25 in AI-exposed roles, like software developers and marketing managers, have experienced a 16% relative employment decline.
