Young Grads Face Tough Job Market with AI in the Mix
Meghan Obetz’s college degree is no guarantee of employment. The 22-year-old from Philadelphia, like many of her peers, is struggling to find a job in a market where AI is increasingly a part of the hiring process. With the unemployment rate for young workers nearly twice as high as the national average, recent graduates across the country are sounding the alarm about the challenges of finding work in an age of automation.
The job market has always been tough for young people, but with AI on the scene, things are getting even more complicated. Many recent graduates, like Obetz, are finding that their degrees aren’t enough to get them in the door – no matter how hard they polish their resumes or practice their interview skills.
The AI Hiring Advantage
For companies, AI-powered recruiting tools offer a way to quickly sift through piles of applications and identify the most promising candidates. But for young job seekers, this means facing a new kind of competition – one where their skills and experience are being judged by machines as much as by humans. “It feels like the computer is doing all the work,” says Obetz. “I’m just trying to get my foot in the door, but it’s like they’re not even looking at my application.”
AI-powered hiring tools use algorithms to assess candidate skills and experience, often based on data from social media profiles, online portfolios, and even resume keywords. While these tools can make the hiring process more efficient, they can also perpetuate biases and discriminate against certain groups of people – including young workers who may not have a strong online presence.
A New Kind of Job Search
So what does this mean for young job seekers like Obetz? In short, it means they need to be more proactive than ever in their job search. This might involve building a strong online presence, networking with people in their industry, or even learning new skills that are less likely to be automated. “I’m trying to make myself as marketable as possible,” says Obetz. “But it’s hard to know what the companies want when it feels like they’re using AI to do all the hiring.”
