2 days ago
Gen Z is facing a job market double-whammy
New graduates are having an especially tough time landing a job right now: The share of unemployed Americans that are new to the workforce is at a 37-year high.
Why it matters: It's a sign of how reluctant companies have been to hire amid ongoing economic uncertainty over tariffs and policy.
By the numbers: 13.4% of unemployed Americans in July were "new labor force entrants," those looking for jobs with no prior work experience, including new high school and college graduates.
It's the highest number since 1988, as the Baby Boomer generation was flooding the job market.
That's from a new analysis of government data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
The big picture: Folks with jobs are hanging on to them at the moment; unemployment is at a relatively low 4.2%. But those without work are having a hard time — facing one of the toughest job markets in years.
The jobless rate for college degree holder s, age 22-27, has been hovering at a rate last seen during the 2010s (excluding 2020 data).
Still, they are at a clear advantage among their peers without degrees. Overall the unemployment rate for everyone age 22-27 was 7.4% in the second quarter of the year.
Zoom in: Another sign of how hard it's become to get a job? The share of unemployed workers who've been without a job for 27 weeks or longer is up sharply, the Richmond Fed report says.
Such long-term unemployed people make up 25.2% of all unemployed workers — the highest since February 2022.
The bottom line: The frozen hiring market is a "double-whammy" for Gen Z, says John O'Trakoun, an economist at the Richmond Fed who did the research.
