Graduation season us upon us, which means that many new college graduates will be spending time on online job boards and sitting in interviews over the coming months. Does it look like the job market will be kind to them?
It depends on how they approach it, said Julie Bauke from The Bauke Group. She joined Audacy this week to give an overview of the conditions Class of 2025 grads should expect to find themselves in.
“So, 2024 and 2025 have been pretty tough compared to, let’s say, the three years before that,” she said, adding that the COVID-19 era had a more “let’s hire anybody with a pulse,” vibe. That’s not the case lately.
Data from Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicates that the unemployment rate for recent college grads as of this March was at 5.8%, compared to overall unemployment at around 4.2% last month, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Office of Financial Management’s May economic report also indicates that non-farm unemployment is growing in the U.S.
Bauke said that hiring sprees and cuts tend to happen in a pendulum-swing pattern but she also noted that right now is actually a “weird time in the job market.” For example, economic uncertainty linked to President Donald Trump’s tariff plan has resulted in some hiring pauses, and many 2024 grads are still looking for work, increasing competition in the job market. Artificial intelligence has also snowballed as a tool in the workplace, and some businesses are looking to it as a way to cut down on positions.
“Just like when people are worried about a recession, we say, ‘Just use two squares of toilet paper instead of three.’ You know, companies will say, ‘Can we live with what we have? Can our people do more with less?’ And so, there’s a little bit of a paralysis there.”
What does that mean for new grads? Well, Bauke said they are going to find a way to stand out. She also said that endlessly applying for jobs online probably won’t do the trick. In fact, Bauke said those online applications are often ineffective and that applying to hundreds can actually be a recipe for depression.
“This victim mentality of ‘Nobody’s hiring, I think I’m just gonna play Minecraft,’ – it actually makes you less attractive,” Bauke said.
It’s important to get something on their resumes for new grads. They might not get exactly what they wanted but any experience, from part-time work to volunteering and internships to jobs outside of their field of study count.
“So, say you got person A who wants to do a certain thing and they spend a year looking for that thing and doing nothing but looking for a job in that year,” she said. “You compare that person to somebody who might want to do the same thing, but they looked for a part-time, they volunteered, maybe they even took on a full-time job doing something else. That person B has a much better story to tell than person A, who said, well. There’s only one thing I wanted to do, and I stayed with my parents and applied online all day, every day for a year.”
People skills are also a huge asset that won’t go out of style, Bauke added.
“Being able to look people in the eye, shake hands, talk about yourself, and show up and do all of those emotional intelligence communication sort of things, sort of the professionalism, that is the stuff that gets you hired,” she explained. “Give me a B average with all those skills over a 4.0 with no skills any day.”
Another interview tip from Bauke is to dress for the people hiring. She noted that younger generations often want corporate culture to bend to them, but she recommends more of a compromise between younger and older generations.
While new graduates have likely already chosen the industries they want to go into, Bauke also had some advice regarding which industries they might have the most luck finding jobs in.
“If you have experience or interest in healthcare, data analytics or tech, you’re generally gonna be fine,” she said. “Let’s just say you’re going to be finer than others. Because those are the areas that employers are hiring. And when you look at the occupational outlook, which is a government bureau that takes a look at what the next 10 years are going to look like, those are areas where... the growth is going to be.”