The Crumbling Entry-Level Job Market

[00:00:00] The 10 Minute Talent Rant is live. I’m James Hornick joined by Jeff Smith, and we are on the clock. The 10 Minute Talent Rant is our ongoing series where we breakdown things that are broken in the talent acquisition hiring space. Maybe even pitch a solution or two. Before we could dig in, all of our content can be found on talentinsights.hirewell.com.
Jeff, you ready? Yeah. This one is, this one’s for the kids, this one for the lit literal kids as the kids say. Yeah. And, this episode one 12 really getting up there, the crumbling entry level job market. And I have to, I’ll do a preview for this before we get into this. I may or may not be talking about this on, Chicago.
Good morning, Chicago Fox 32. Thursday morning this week. So, I say maybe because it was supposed to be last week, and they always push these things, but apparently I’m an expert in this space now, locally recognized. well you’re now a frequent guest. Yeah. I feel like we can say that.
You’re a multiple, you’re like an SNL host. You’re now counting your Yeah, I think this is a four time. I don’t remember it all started during the pandemic. Anyways, long story. So we, we do wanna talk [00:01:00] about what’s happening in triable job market. It’s a mess. And I’ve got some stats here because I think people can,
you could talk about any part of the job market anecdotally. Anyone thinks everything’s terrible all the time because of whatever they’re kind of seated in. But, New York Federal Reserve found that CS grads, so computer science grads dealing with a whopping 6.1% unemployment rate. So people actually majoring in computer engineering, are just higher level.
’cause like it’s, what is it, 4.4 every everywhere else? Yeah. Remember like CS was like, I mean, it kind of started after you were in ice, but like the millennial generation for sure. It was like, yeah, gotta go to school and get a CS degree. Everyone should learn to code. It was this big march, like everyone needs to learn how to do it.
It’s something that like, there’s unlimited supply and the thing that’s hysterical is like, the article we found this from, from futurism, it was mentioning like journalism majors, which everyone thinks is on the complete decline. Also 4.4%. So unemployment rate among new [00:02:00] college grads. So there are more journalism majors by percentage getting jobs than computer science majors.
Now granted that’s because everyone stopped going. There’s less people doing journalism now and there’s more people doing computer science. But you kind of see the point. It’s completely outta whack. Yeah, I mean, if you look at like the national average of 4.2, and also the economy has added, you know, jobs for 52 months in a row.
Like there’s a lot of doomsday out there, but that’s, those are facts. Yeah. The unemployment rate for this, for the 20 to 24 year olds is double the national average at roughly 8.2%. So. Like the data doesn’t lie here. Yeah. And if you break that down further, if you look at just males, so just men, it can have, in that demographic it’s like 9.6%.
So it’s almost 10% unemployment among like males who graduated from school right now. So, and that’s I think, last data thing we’re gonna dump on you here, that’s up from 6.7% a year ago. So like, up two, 2% in a year is a lot. So [00:03:00] something’s happening. We’re gonna talk about it. We just want to drop the stats on you.
So we weren’t just kind of like hair on fire, but there is something to us. Yeah. We’re not doing the whole, this is not a, woe is the, the plight of man. Yeah. You know, just a stat. So we’re gonna kind of break this down into tranches, but first point is, I mean, what does it look like right now for entry level talent?
Number one, There’s just fewer true entry level roles. One, the definition of entry level has changed. There’s a 2024, NACE study that found nearly 65% of employers now prioritize folks with, you know, prior experience and proven competencies, even in the roles that used to be starter jobs.
Yeah. So we see this in recruiting all the time. Like, this person has had to have done X before they’re even qualified. And they’re paying, you know, 70 K, which is an entry level salary, and the meme that’s out there all the time about entry level jobs require two [00:04:00] years experience or four.
This is what this is, you know, like it’s, I always kind of crapped on those takes cause honestly I didn’t personally see it because I’m not an entry level grab looking for a job. The one clients we do have, looking for entry level, we’re looking for entry level people. But there is, it’s a wider world out there and it’s real.
So. And there’s this shrink. It’s such a good point. There’s the shrinking new grad pipeline. There’s major employers that used to run these, you know, and they still are, but they’re shrinking. These large college recruiting programs, that has scaled down immensely, up to and including pausing.
And that leaves just more grads fighting for fewer jobs. Yeah. And finally, there’s this pandemic gap, ripple effect. Many students kind of either delayed or had longer colleges experiences because of 2020 and that led to higher enrollment in 2021. And now in 2025, we’re seeing that larger than usual graduating class come to the market for the first time.
And it is like this pressure cooker of [00:05:00] competition. So higher supply, lower demand. That’s part of the reason. Second thing, we can’t not talk about. AI can’t. It’s gonna be a forever topic. Can’t do. I mean, we just talked about the pandemic. We’re going back to the pandemic. Now we’re shooting head to AI.
Here’s the thing. There is clearly an AI first mindset with companies. Even if you think AI is over-hyped and it’s bogus and a lot of this is going away and it’s nothing new, like there’s a lot of legitimate downward takes to AI, some of which I agree with there. It doesn’t change the fact that companies who are trying to be run fiscally responsible right now ’cause everything else that’s happening in the marketplace.
Are asking themselves like, well, let’s not hire anybody till we see what AI can do. It’s a shifting perception and it’s something that every company’s looking at, and the hyper reality really doesn’t matter. So the thing you then have to take is, okay, if a company is going to look at not hiring as much, displacing some things to AI, what tasks are those?
What functions are those? It’s always gonna be at the lowest level, the most basic, repeatable tasks. The kind of work that like junior level workers would do to kind of cut [00:06:00] their teeth on things. We’re seeing this, straight up, where as soon as chat GPD came out, we started seeing this like marketing.
Entry level marketing roles, content creation, reporting, basic, SEO, that stuff got decimated honestly right away. We used to do a ton of work in that area. We still do, but like we used to do more volume work and that’s just dead. Similar things are happening in operations and recruiting and customer service and whatnot, kind of really everywhere.
But I think that it’s not, it’s the entry level that’s taking the brunt of AI being integrated. Yeah. And it’s gonna kind of dovetail into what we’re gonna talk about here, but there’s just less reps to like have human interaction. Which is kind of at the crux of all of this.
And all of that usually used to start at gathering documents to file and like having to go to three separate departments. All of that stuff actually mattered weirdly. Yeah. Third piece is, so what can you do? You’re a recent grab. What can you do? What should you do to [00:07:00] stick out? Number one, be the go-getter, the most boomer take ever, you know, go take what’s yours?
People remember folks who get themselves in front of, you know, important people. Hiring managers consistently value young, not even just young. They value professionals who show, drive, initiative, hunger, grit, like whatever that means to you. Like everybody kind of knows how. And I wanna say this has been universally true since I’ve been in the workforce.
Like not just now, but you know, going back 20, 25 years. Every hiring manager wants those exact same qualities, every single intake without fail. that is a requirement. Yeah. Show human connection skills. Especially, especially in roles like sales. You know, companies want personable, confident.
Proactive communication folks who can go out and sell their product. I don’t care if it’s candy bars or a software [00:08:00] solution. Right. If you’re willing to talk, follow up, be engaged, you’re going to stand out. Yeah. And rebuild. Go to the gym, proverbially, build some, like some muscle memory. Real world success requires personal one-on-one interaction.
And if you don’t have those reps, you’re gonna fall behind. So something previous generations, you and I, like you said, we did it by default. Yeah. The concern I have, and this is this is the real boomer take the concern I have because this isn’t even just entry level people. This is millennial generation.
I worry that our society has become, I call it swiping society, dating apps. You swipe left, everything you can buy on e-commerce. Like we’ve created this world where no one has to have any human interaction anymore. And I think it’s at a detriment to people when they have to do a job search, when they have to actually interact with people in a worldwide environment.
But my point is, is that, I hope people can recognize I’ve become too reliant on my phone to make my life too easy. But I need to get back to actually learning how to talk to people. ’cause that is what’s gonna help you both in your career and in your job [00:09:00] search. Continue. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. No, no. Perfect.
And then just highlight real world experience to the hiring entities, internships. Capstone projects, freelance gives, like, talk about cutting lawns. Like that stuff matters. anything outside of the classroom shows that you, A, are gritty, and B, have the ability to apply the skills to a real, you know, real business situation.
All right, lemme come back to AI for a second. because I think this plays into this too. My take on why AI might be a little bit bullshit, isn’t because the technology’s bullshit. It’s ’cause I legitimately don’t believe that most companies are equipped to actually use AI to integrate into their environment effective way.
It requires people who have not, not be an engineer, but have a problem solving curious engineering mindset where you just wanna find out how this stuff works and you wanna be able to see what kind of problems you can solve. I do not believe there are enough people like that, in most organizations, period, to make that actually work.
Which is why I think like relying on the next tool to come out to solve your problem isn’t [00:10:00] going to work. Long story short. What I’ve seen with my own eyes, because we talk about this internally, so I’m gonna give him a shout out. Our director of marketing, Brian, he’s not entry level, he’s been doing this for a while.
He and I were talking about some new tools and stuff that came out, and he’s very smart. He has, I would say, an engineering mindset and a curious mindset. But he is not a developer. He doesn’t have any developing skills. He was able to create a website, that would integrate with our CRM system for a better candidate within like 10 minutes using some AI tools that are out there. Now.
I don’t know if they’re gonna work. I don’t know if it’s like perfect, like obviously you’re gonna need some developers to tie it in, but the amount of things that you can do now with AI that you to make yourself more productive or make organization, it’s. It’s drastically different. But again, I don’t think there’s enough people out there that actually have the right mindset for it.
But if you are one of those entry-level people that can demonstrate like here’s, I know how to use AI to get three times as much work done as the next person, whether that’s in a sales capacity, whether that’s actually helping you integrate your systems, you are so valuable because I guarantee the companies you’re working for are trying to work on these things and they don’t know how to do it [00:11:00] either.
So, and all that takes is a little bit of curiosity and seeing what’s out there, doing a little research and playing around with it. So. Nice tie into a former episode there. Yeah. Using AI to your advantage and not relying on it. okay. Lastly, what shouldn’t you do? Don’t rely on just applying to jobs.
Like it, it’s dead. Stop doing that. Don’t, don’t not apply to jobs, but if you’re only relying on that, you’re never gonna get a job. There’s another gear to job searching. Yeah. You have to, you’re gonna have to get into, you could argue like the logic is there too. Like it maybe the new pi, maybe the new personality assessment should just be logic games from the lsat, you know?
Yeah. A hundred percent job postings get hundreds, thousands of resumes. You’re not differentiating yourself. Like, just clicking apply doesn’t work. Case closed. Hiring managers are impressed by direct outreach. Make a list. Identify 10 to 30 companies that really kind of float your boat, make some [00:12:00] really direct personalized messaging.
Send something short, concise, impactful, like that stuff’s gonna get 10 x return than just clicking that apply button. And finally, don’t expect AI to be perfect like you’ve said it. It’s one thing to write, you know, y’all probably have written, some bullshit paper on Napoleon and like European history and that’s fine.
It’s quite another thing to automate some complex, business problem, like solely relying on like your computer overlord. All right, final takeaways. It’s harder but not hopeless. And I think that’s really kind of the key thing. The opportunity still exists, but you have to take it. You can’t just apply to things.
You have to be. Proactive, curious. You have to put yourself out there. You have to make direct phone calls. You have to DM people or email people directly. You have to show up to networking events and you have to actually talk, on that note, interpersonal effectiveness and interpersonal communication, no matter what you’re in sales, tech, finance ops, like your ability to connect and communicate and sell your ideas and [00:13:00] express yourself is irreplaceable.
That’s the one thing that can’t be put aside by AI, and it’s the one thing that I think is very much lacking. Yeah, just learn to be social again. Yeah, case closed. We are short on clock. That’s a wrap for this week. Thanks for tuning in the 10 Minute Talent Rant, part of the Talent Insights series, which is always available for replay on Talentinsights@hirewell.com, as well as YouTube Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, and Amazon.
Jeff, thanks again as always, everyone out there. We will see you soon.