College graduates face a better job market than you think | Opinion

As a parent of four recent college graduates, I understand the anxiety. And as someone who works with data on higher education every day, I can tell you: You’re going to be OK.

You have probably seen the stories and heard the chatter. The job market is brutal. The bachelor of arts is worthless. Artificial intelligence is taking entry-level jobs.

If you are about to walk across a stage, or just did, the news coverage is not what you need right now. It’s also not an accurate picture of what’s happening.

Yes, this is a harder market than it was two or three years ago. Entry-level hiring has slowed, particularly in tech and related fields. Employers are being cautious. You will likely send more applications than graduates a few years ahead of you did.

But here is what the news coverage is leaving out: 77% of graduates from the class of 2025 found a job within three months of getting their degree. Three years ago, almost 85% of bachelor's degree holders were either employed or enrolled in further education within six months.

That is not a crisis. It is a tight market, and most people get through it.

You might be facing a competitive market, not a broken one

One more thing to keep in mind: Every May, the labor market takes in millions of new graduates at once. Competition is always highest right at graduation.

Then the market eases. Graduates who keep searching and stay focused tend to do better than those who give up early or rush into the first offer out of stress. Treat the job search like a job.

The doom narrative is also getting the shape of the problem wrong. Health, education and social services are projecting hiring at close-to-normal levels.

The pressure is concentrated in tech and fields related to tech that went through a boom, then a correction, and are now more affected by artificial intelligence.

New Lumina Foundation/Gallup data on students reconsidering their majors because of AI shows the same thing. The anxiety is not evenly distributed across all fields. It is concentrated in one part of the market.

If that is not your field, you are facing a competitive market, not a broken one. And even in tech, hiring is starting to stabilize.

Your degree is worth a lot more than you think

Now here is the part that actually matters for the rest of your life: The degree you just earned is worth a lot more than the headlines suggest.

The data points are clear. Median weekly earnings for workers with a bachelor’s degree ($1,543) were about 66% higher than earnings for workers with only a high school diploma ($930). Over a lifetime, that adds up to roughly $1.2 million in additional earnings. Those are not projections; they are consistent findings over decades.

The unemployment rate for BA degree holders currently sits under 3%, compared with under 5% overall. The degree makes you more resilient when industries shift, more likely to get promoted and more able to move across sectors when you need to.

None of that shows up in your first 90 days. The real benefits of a BA build over time. The slow start that has everyone worried is not the whole story. It is the first chapter of a much longer one.

I watched my own kids live that. The ones who kept going found their footing. Every one of them.

How to make yourself more employable

There are things you can do right now that make a real difference.

Graduates with work experience before finishing college were nearly twice as likely to have a job lined up before they walked across the stage. Graduates who networked actively were far more likely to land roles quickly ‒ 1 in 5 made a meaningful connection or secured an interview at an on-campus career fair.

The search is not random. It responds to effort and strategy.

What’s happening right now is real, but it’s not permanent. The path from college to career is changing, and it needs to work better than it does today. That’s on institutions and employers to fix. In the meantime, don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.

The degree you’ve earned is something that still opens doors, even if the first one takes longer to push open.

You’re going to be fine. Go find your job.

Courtney Brown, PhD, is vice president of impact and planning for Lumina Foundation, an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all.