College Graduate Hiring Trends 2025: Beyond the Headlines
It seems like most of the recent headlines regarding hiring recent college graduates focus on the negativity - no one is hiring, AI is taking over, and unemployment is on the rise. We understand those headlines are flashy, however we wanted to share our perspective from being on the front lines of hiring recent college graduates for over 20 years.
We won’t take you all the way back to 2003, but we will give a little back story. Following the Great Recession in the late ‘00’s, the 2010’s were marked by a time of growth year-over-year. Employers were cautiously optimistic and were still selective when it came to hiring recent graduates. Each year saw growth in more recent grads being hired, wages rising and unemployment declining. By 2019 the job market was strong, followed by a major market disruption in 2020 with the pandemic.
When the pandemic first hit, the uncertainty caused many companies to take a “wait and see” approach. They paused hiring, evaluated budgets, and focused on their existing workforce. Soon after, companies shifted to the next phase of figuring out “the new normal” (sorry for triggering any flashbacks with that phrase). Once they felt confident, hiring started again, and companies were making up for lost time. 2021 - 2023 saw a record number of job openings, wages rising significantly to compete for top talent, and many opportunities available for recent college graduates.
The past few years have seen a correction from the 2020 - 2023 period of pandemic pause to surge in hiring, and back to the year over year growth seen throughout the 2010’s. Bringing us to 2025, we aren’t ignoring reality. We know AI is advancing every day, and uncertainty may be causing some companies to slow and take a “wait and see” approach like we have seen in the past by implementing hiring freezes in certain markets. However, we also know that hiring trends can be cyclical and comparing hiring in 2025 to the record-setting hiring levels of 2022 isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison.
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)’s Job Outlook 2025 Spring Update, nearly 90% of employers anticipate increasing or maintaining hiring levels for 2025 compared to 2024. While the flashy headline of “NACE's hiring projections for the class of 2025 dropped sharply, from an expected 7.3% increase in fall 2024 to a 0.6% increase by spring 2025” might generate more clicks, it doesn’t tell the full story. In fact, there are still more projected openings in 2025 than in 2024. Graduates may need to stand out with more than just a degree, bringing skills, attitude, and adaptability to the table and that’s where we come in - helping you to find and hire the best and brightest.
Graph of year over year growth outlining the surge seen in 2021 - 2023 and leveling off in 2024 - 2025:
