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Rise in Graduates Using Job Platforms
Increase in bachelor's and master's degree recipients creating online job profiles from 2023 to 2025.
Primary Sources
For New Grads Looking for Work, the Struggle Is Real - But Not for All
More new graduates are creating profiles on Indeed, and it’s very likely many of them are there because their job searches have gotten harder. Key points: The share of new graduates with Indeed profiles increased dramatically between 2023 and 2025 – rising from 11.5% to 19.1% among bachelor’s degree recipients and from 8.9% to 14.4% among master’s degree recipients. The acceleration coincides with a significantly harder job market for new graduates. The unemployment rate for recent grads hit 5.7% in Q4 2025, a three-year high, while the share of unemployed Americans who are new workforce entrants reached a 37-year peak. The surge is not uniform across fields of study. Fields where graduates are typically placed through more-established routes, including clinical rotations, student teaching, and/or apprenticeships, show stable Indeed engagement regardless of broader market conditions. Fields with open, competitive job markets show the sharpest increases in profile creation. For years, the share of college graduates who created profiles on Indeed by the end of their graduation year grew slowly and steadily. Then, starting in 2024, it surged. Among bachelor’s degree recipients, the share of US graduates who created or modified their Indeed profile during their year of graduation rose from 8.5% in 2018 to 11.5% in 2023 — a gradual 3-point climb over five years. It then jumped to 15.1% in 2024 and 19.1% in 2025. Master’s degree recipients followed the same arc: a slow rise from 6.9% to 8.9% between 2018 and 2023, then a sharp acceleration to 14.4% by 2025. Part of this movement is simply that the total number of profiles on the Indeed site has grown over time. But the more recent surge in profile creation among soon-to-be or recent grads also reflects a change in the graduate hiring landscape. In previous years, grads might have relied on campus recruiting, converted internships, and/or word of mouth to land a job. But now, they are increasingly turning to a job search platform. The large jump in profile creation among 2024 and 2025 grads is not fully a platform trend; it’s a signal that something has changed in the labor market itself. Line graph titled “College graduates in 2024 and 2025 were much more likely to create an Indeed profile” showing the share of bachelor’s and master’s degree recipients who created an Indeed profile by December 31st of their graduation year, 2018–2025. Both lines jump considerably beginning in 2024. A tougher market Ther...
My parents pay my rent in New York City because I can't find a full ...
The author is a recent college graduate who can't find a job. Courtesy of Dove Williams 2026-04-25T11:07:01.304Z I've been searching for my first full-time role since I graduated last May to no luck. I've had to rely on my parents to stay in New York City, which has made me feel guilty. Despite the countless rejections, I'm not letting it stop me from enjoying life. Last May, I graduated with my bachelor's degree from The New School, a relatively large private institution in New York City. I knew competition postgrad would be competitive, but I did not anticipate a grim job market and AI takeovers.As a Dean's List student with a 3.9 GPA and multiple extracurriculars under my belt, I figured I'd be a top candidate for my first entry-level job.Boy, was I wrong.Moving to New York City was my dream for as long as I can rememberI figured graduating would mean freedom from the confines of a classroom. But when I followed my dream to New York City, that freedom was paralyzing. I quickly learned that I still had a ways to go before I could start living my life. I found myself stuck behind a counter working my part-time job as a barista and questioning everything from why I went to college to why I feel so passionate about staying in one of the most expensive places on earth. Additionally, I felt guilty for relying on my parents to pay my rent and help keep me here away from my home state of North Carolina.I felt like an idiot for leaving my family, even though I always knew I was meant for more than what my hometown could offer, and yet the city remains financially challenging for someone like me with student loans and only a part-time job. Thankfully, I have a cushion should I need it, but I expected to be financially independent by now.Navigating a competitive marketSince graduation, I have applied to roughly 200 positions, ranging from internships to entry-level to contract and temp roles. And while that number doesn't seem like much compared to the other grads who've sent out 500+ applications, I like to think I'm playing the market strategically by applying to roles where I'm a decent fit. I'm also attempting to set up informational interviews.However, regardless of my strategy, I keep getting ghosted and rejected by automated no-reply emails months after applying.When I discovered that I wasn't the only one struggling, it began to make sense. However, after dealing with COVID interruptions in high school, worker strikes in college, and mental health st...
As graduates enter a challenging job market marked by rising ...
3 hours ago ... Recent college graduates are facing significant challenges in securing jobs after graduation due to a combination of economic uncertainty, shifting job market ...
New Batch of College Graduates Faces an Increasingly Shaky Job Market
The total number of available entry-level jobs in New York City fell 37% between 2022 and 2024, a loss of nearly 30,000 positions Over 565,000 people who graduated from college between 2022 and 2025 were working in the city as of December 2025, up from 490,000 a year earlier—meaning more graduates are competing for fewer entry-level jobs
