The Current Entry-Level Job Market

In April 1991, I was a senior at Harvard—just one month from graduating. But I couldn’t find a job to save my life.

Rejection letters lined my wall.

A reporter came to our college career office to do a story about the recession and the bleak hiring market.

The segment aired a few days later on ABC News World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.

Watch the video (if only for the big hair jokes you can tell 🙃).

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So why is this relevant now?

Because the current entry-level job market sucks.

Not just a little.
Not sort of.
But utterly and completely.

It is really that bad.

-Between 2021 and early 2024, there was an 11.2% decrease in overall job postings for entry-level positions in the US.

-And for the Class of 2025, the overall hiring-growth projection fell from 7.3% to just 0.6% compared to the previous year.

New graduates are reportedly feeling the squeeze:

They feel stressed, pessimistic, and disillusioned.

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So back to the video:

I received it totally out of the blue from a stranger
(another 1991-graduating-senior from a different college
who had also been interviewed for the segment).

 Wow, it brought back so many memories and emotions.

I definitely had no clue who or what I was supposed to become back then.

So if you’re about to graduate college, or you did recently, and you don’t have a job lined up and are feeling a bit lost, please know that I recall the feeling well.

I am thinking of you and sending out so much positivity.

Things eventually worked out OK for me.

I will be rooting that things work out soon for you, too.

💌 Amanda