If you are a new high school or college graduate, I understand some of the frustrations that you may be feeling right now. You’ve got the skills to do your dream job or the job that you studied so hard in school to learn how to do. It’s just that you’ve got little experience, and that may be working against you in your job search. If you’ve sent out hundreds of to a few thousand applications, know that you aren’t alone. It’s time to explore just how hard it has become to find a good job in 2025.
We May Truly Be In A ‘Skilled Jobs Recession!’
So, what that means is that there aren’t enough quality and high-paying skilled jobs out there to meet the demand of skilled workers who need or even want them. A huge part of the reason is that, and you can thank Millennials, and especially Gen Zers for this, employers aren’t sure about the workforce. They have encountered what they consider to be nightmare workers by hiring Gen Z employees, and have even started firing many of them (I explored that in another article.)
However, AI is the main reason why employers are holding off on hiring now. We’re in the midst of a huge AI revolution. So, most jobs you have heard of now will either be partly or fully done by some AI tool or robot. That will shrink their need for manpower dramatically. Sure, AI will create more jobs than it creates, eventually. However, it only started to be rolled out two years ago. So, it may take a while for that to occur.
Also, employers can’t predict which jobs will be automated, which will be left alone, and which will be created because of automation. That leaves them in a real pickle since they are still figuring out how to reconfigure jobs to account for increased automation and AI. They are also figuring out which skills they’ll need to hire for the most and how to word job descriptions and titles to reflect these changes.
As You Can See, Finding Skilled Work is Hard
There is an old saying, ‘finding a job is a job in itself.’ That’s especially true in the digital era. Now, more than ever, it’s hard to find a quality job that will let you pay back your student loans while paying all of your bills!
