College graduates are hitting the job market at the worst possible time. A perfect storm of AI-generated applications and economic uncertainty has flipped traditional hiring patterns, leaving recent grads with higher unemployment than the general population for the first time in decades.
The great reversal nobody saw coming
Here’s a stat that should alarm every college career counselor: 6.6 percent of bachelor’s degree holders between 22 and 27 are unemployed. Compare that to the 4 percent national average, and you’ve got a problem that’s been building quietly for five years.
This complete reversal of historical trends hit its lowest point this spring, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics that The Wall Street Journal highlighted last month. Just a year ago, that graduate unemployment figure sat at 6 percent.
What’s driving this shift? The usual suspects include lingering pandemic effects, climbing interest rates, and President Donald Trump’s fluctuating tariff policies. But there’s a new player making things worse: generative AI.
Industry leaders are already warning that artificial intelligence could eliminate massive numbers of entry-level white-collar roles over the next five years. Meanwhile, that same technology is letting desperate job seekers flood recruiters with hundreds of applications in minutes.
Colleges aren’t sitting idle, though. They’re partnering with AI companies to build tools that help their alumni navigate this chaotic new landscape.
When everyone can apply to everything
Jeremy Schifeling knows this crisis intimately. The founder of Job Insiders, which teaches students and career coaches how to leverage tools like LinkedIn and ChatGPT for job hunting, says we’ve hit a “breaking point.”
“The actual battle for the jobs that do exist is fiercer than ever because, through the use of ChatGPT or even more customized AI tools, an individual student can pump out 500 or 1,000 applications in the blink of an eye,” Schifeling explained. “Recruiters are throwing their hands up.”
His advice? Go back to basics. “Applicants [will] have to go back to first principles” to stand out, he said.
What does that mean practically? Schifeling, who previously worked as associate director of career services at the University of Michigan, believes it comes down to relationships.
“Our own human algorithms are wired for relationships and trust,” he said. “Employers are always going to pick someone who’s a friend of a friend or is recommended by a current employee over the random stranger, no matter how good their AI-generated résumé is.”
The networking imperative gets stronger
Alumni connections have always mattered, but they’re becoming essential survival tools. The problem? Not every student can easily tap into those networks.
If you’re an international student, nonnative English speaker or an introvert, you have all of these challenges competing in a labor market that gives favoritism to people who are bold and well-spoken,” Schifeling noted.
That’s where AI-powered training comes in. “There are AI tools now that will help people practice interviews or role-play conversations, so that even if you’re an introvert or nonnative English speaker, you can start to build up the muscle memory and confidence and repetition so you can feel comfortable in that environment.”
Josh Kahn from the National Association of Colleges and Employers agrees that networking skills “will become an even more important part of getting the job” as opportunities shrink.
The numbers back up that pessimism. Employers started the 2024-25 academic year expecting to hire 7.3 percent more Class of 2025 graduates compared to the previous year, according to NACE’s fall survey. By spring, that optimism had evaporated—projections dropped to just 0.6 percent growth.
Universities deploy new weapons
Most schools now offer AI-powered interview prep through platforms like FinalRoundAI, Big Interview, and LinkedIn Interview Prep. They also run alumni networking platforms including LinkedIn, Almabase, and Gravyty.
The catch? Getting people to use them. Max Leisten, founder and CEO of Protopia, points out that “alumni teams struggle to get alumni and students to sign up for these platforms” because they require creating new accounts.
The University of Tennessee’s experience illustrates this challenge perfectly. Despite celebrating 8,000-plus members on Gravyty after three years, that represents a tiny fraction of UT’s 454,000 total graduates.
Protopia takes a different approach. It bypasses the signup problem entirely by using AI to facilitate direct email connections between students and alumni.
Here’s how it works: Universities share their alumni email databases with Protopia. Students use an AI assistant to craft personalized outreach emails describing their career goals—maybe a communications major seeking nonprofit work on the West Coast. The algorithm then identifies matching alumni and sends the message directly.
The response rate? About 93 percent, according to Leisten.
“Universities have to make it easier for alumni to connect,” he said. “And that’s where AI comes in. It allows you to deliver something at scale that was previously unscalable.”
Teaching the soft skills AI can’t replicate
Protopia launched in 2019, but the recent explosion of generative AI has made it more valuable for students still learning professional communication.
“For example, we’ve struggled with students not knowing how to say thank you when they got a response they didn’t like. They don’t understand that even a no is still an opportunity to build social capital,” Leisten explained. “So we built an agent that crafts a recommended thank-you. We’re coaching students and alumni on how to better engage with each other.”
Major universities including Elon, Northwestern, and Ohio State have signed on as partners.
Real results emerge
Lasse Palomaki, associate director of career services for alumni at Elon University, launched “Elon Q&A” last fall using Protopia’s platform. The program addresses growing demand for networking opportunities among both students and alumni.
The results speak for themselves: 440 questions processed, with students submitting 78 percent, alumni 16 percent, and faculty 6 percent. Those inquiries generated 538 direct responses from alumni.
“Everyone knows that networking matters, but very few students and even alumni know how to do it. Going to a networking event with a bunch of alums may be nerve-racking for students. Many of them just won’t show up,” Palomaki observed.
“If that was all we had to offer, a lot of students would never get that networking piece of their education. But through something like Elon Q&A, we can lower the barrier to engaging in these meaningful interactions.”
The new normal takes shape
This isn’t a temporary blip that’ll resolve itself once economic conditions improve. The combination of AI disruption and structural changes in how companies hire suggests we’re looking at a permanently altered landscape.
What we’re seeing now might be the early stages of a broader shift where personal connections become the primary differentiator in job searches. The graduates who master this reality—whether through natural networking ability or AI-assisted skill building—will likely have significant advantages.
The question isn’t whether AI will continue changing the job market. It’s whether universities can adapt their career services fast enough to keep up.
Will relationship-building become the new core curriculum for career success? The Class of 2025 is about to find out.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics, Gravyty, National Association of Colleges and Employers
