Recent male graduates are struggling to get jobs, and experts are puzzled as to why.
Men aged 22 to 27 with at least a bachelor’s degree are now unemployed at higher rates than the general population.
Over the past year, unemployment among this group has climbed from 5 to 7 percent, the analysis from the Financial Times found.
For their female peers, joblessness has stayed nearly flat — even dropping slightly in some cases.
The findings mean young men with degrees are now unemployed at the same rate as those without one, a startling reversal of long-standing trends.
The narrative has suggested that the unstoppable rise of AI is wiping out entry-level jobs in male-dominated fields such as computer engineering.
But the FT’s analysis found that hiring for software engineering and related roles has actually begun to rebound in recent months, leaving the cause of the slump unclear.
Young women’s employment seems to be faring better in part because they take up more healthcare roles which are always in demand.
Recent male graduates are now more likely to be unemployed than their peers without degrees
Healthcare roles are increasing as the demands of an ageing population also increase.
Many of the roles are also hands-on and therefore not easily automated.
Around 50,000 of the 135,000 new jobs taken up by young women graduates in the past year were in healthcare.
That figure represents more than double the total number of additional jobs taken up by their male peers in any sector in the same period, the FT reported.
However, for both men and women graduating college it is the most difficult time in a decade to get that first foot on the career ladder, according to the latest government figures.
Young Americans are complaining that employers want years of experience even for entry level positions.
Others are saying that they are having to apply for over 60 jobs before finally landing a tentative position.
Overall national unemployment remains reasonably low at 4 percent, but this rises to 6.6 percent for new college graduates, Labor Department numbers show.
The employment conditions for recent college graduates have ‘deteriorated noticeably’
More women take up roles in healthcare that are immune to AI and automation
Job prospects for degrees such as computer engineering could be hit harder by AI
The figures show a rise from the 6 percent unemployment rate for recent graduates the same time a year ago.
It is part of a wider trend that has seen entry-level hiring fall by a staggering 17 percent since April 2019, according to data from LinkedIn.
The bad news for new graduates comes despite a stronger-than-expected jobs report earlier this month which indicated that the labor market was holding steady amid the economic turbulence caused by President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The economy added 139,000 jobs in May, above the Dow Jones estimate for 125,000.
But despite the better than expected numbers, it was still a retreat in job growth from April, signaling remaining uncertainty about where the US economy is headed.
Meanwhile, the work habits of Gen Z — those born between 1997 and 2012 — are increasingly under scrutiny. Bosses are firing Gen Z in record time, a recent study revealed.
