Although job market-focused headlines have done enough damage in terms of shaking up the youth’s morale on the employment front, some recent surveys have done their part in attempting to reverse the harm caused. Figures in these studies offer much-needed respite to the wide-eyed Class of 2026 aspiring to crack professional opportunities in the US.
While Big Tech giants like Meta are insistent on doubling down on the AI craze and laying off employees, surveys by the National Association of Colleges and Employers and ZipRecruiter signalled that there’s still hope for new graduates and entry-level workers, as the job market is showing early signs of improvement.
Good news for college graduates? New hiring boost reported
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE) recent survey released Monday, US employers expect to boost new-graduate hires by 5.6% this spring from a year ago. These new figures mark a stark breakaway from last year’s pessimistic forecasts, which were sparked by intentions linked to the AI workforce overhaul. Some companies are also still countering the practice of overhiring during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contrary to the positive outlook reflected in this week’s survey, the National Association of Colleges and Employers rated the job market for the Class of 2026 as “poor or fair” last year. The Wall Street Journal titled the report carrying these numbers as “Companies Predict 2026 Will Be the Worst College Grad Job Market in Five Years,” attributing the largely flat hiring picture to rising layoffs and generative AI’s increasing ability to do more entry-level tasks.
As opposed to the new survey, the fall 2025 American poll suggested that employers expected only a 1.6% increase in hiring for the Class of 2026, marking a significant fall from the previous year’s figure for the Class of 2025.
A second survey by ZipRecruiter indicated that nearly a third of employers planned to hire a greater share of entry-level workers in 2026 than in the previous year. Prominent companies like McKinsey and International Business Machines also reported boosting their graduate hiring this year.
Emerging as one of the top recruiters at large colleges, McKinsey confirmed its entry-level hiring increased in 2026 and is expected to rise again next year despite the AI overhaul. “We think the work is going to continue to be even more important, but the nature of it is going to shift,” said Blair Ciesil, a McKinsey partner leading global talent attraction at the firm.
The present-day harsh reality of the job market is not lost on recent graduates. A separate ZipRecruiter 2026 grad report determined that fresh-out-of-college grads are managing their expectations and landing jobs faster than the class before them. 77% of 2025 college grads said they got their job within three months of graduation. According to the survey of 1,500 recent grads, this is a jump from 63% last year.
Is unemployment down?
An analysis by BofA Global Research published Friday revealed that unemployment among 20- to 24-year-olds with bachelor’s degrees and higher declined sharply to 5.3% in March. This marks a significant fall from a decade-high of 8.9% last fall, excluding the early-pandemic months.
Jerry Goldstein, a career coach at New York City’s Fordham University, told The Wall Street Journal that even as companies continue to be motivated by a ‘perfect-candidate mentality,” hiring in fields like healthcare and in AI-related roles has gone up in recent month. On the contrary, he noted that recruitment in human resources and marketing has shrunk.
According to the new ZipRecruiter report, graduates who worked during school landed jobs at twice the rate (82%) of those who didn’t (41%). “Young people and recent grads are getting more in line with the reality of this job market,” where there are fewer opportunities than there were during the post-pandemic recovery, ZipRecruiter labor economist Nicole Bachaud told CNBC.
But that’s not to say that new graduates are out of danger. Job market fears are still alive and well, as the new NACE survey also established that more than half of employers said they had referenced the idea of replacing early-career tasks with AI.
And so, ZipRecruiter’s data also suggested that 16% of new grads are submitting over 20 applications before landing just one offer, compared to 12% of 2020 grads. On top of that, more students are simply choosing to go ahead with the first offer that comes their way (even if it doesn’t align with their “dream career” path) to cover expenses while looking for other jobs.
“Today’s grads are being more pragmatic, taking a job even if it’s not necessarily the best or the right job for their career prospects,” instead of “waiting for something bigger and better to come along,” Bachaud shared with CNBC.