Job prospects dwindling for college grads

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are an estimated 600000 to 750000 H1B workers in the United States and more than 1 million students who use or become eligible for OPT each year. These programs create a large supply of foreign labor for roles that often overlap with the entry level positions sought by recent American graduates. Given this scale, policymakers should reconsider or even eliminate these pathways in order to prioritize hiring and career development opportunities for US graduates first, ensuring that public investment in domestic education translates into stronger early career outcomes for citizens.

+1

I completely agree. As an IT contractor for a federal agency, I can tell you that around 90% of the IT workforce—including roles like helpdesk support, IT infrastructure, and software development—consists of H1B visa holders. I know so many recent computer science graduates from universities like UVA, Virginia Tech, and UMD who are actively searching for jobs, and they would jump at the chance to work as government contractors for major firms. Yet, companies like Leidos, SAIC, BAH, and CACI find ways to sidestep regulations by hiring H1B workers instead of U.S. citizens, even while qualified American CS grads are left unemployed. These big boys work around the rule by subcontracting to other smaller companies. I am incredibly frustrated and pissed off.

Agree- and I am not maga. our company pays a LOT to sponsor H1Bs and some don't even stay a year. It is expensive.

Who do you work for? I will short the stock.

sorry, not public

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The same place all of the other unemployed grads went when they graduated into a bad job market. Grad school or a different field than what they studied.

Do entry-level grad school graduates fare differently?

Yes, especially when they wait out a bad job market.

Apart from the hyperventilating headlines, there is no reason to believe this is anything other than cyclical combined with a bit of tech industry excesses getting shaken out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a law office that is hiring estate lawyers, an engineering office that is hiring structural engineers and an accounting office that is hiring CPA's.

All are small businesses in Maryland.

They find a lot of prospects don't want to work their schedules/hours.

What kind of hours are these engineers and lawyers working???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are an estimated 600000 to 750000 H1B workers in the United States and more than 1 million students who use or become eligible for OPT each year. These programs create a large supply of foreign labor for roles that often overlap with the entry level positions sought by recent American graduates. Given this scale, policymakers should reconsider or even eliminate these pathways in order to prioritize hiring and career development opportunities for US graduates first, ensuring that public investment in domestic education translates into stronger early career outcomes for citizens.

Thank you Stephen Miller. You may now put back on your ski mask and return to your raids with all of the other losers in ICE.

These are not the people SM is targeting. The people he is targeting are not taking jobs from the children of people on this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are an estimated 600000 to 750000 H1B workers in the United States and more than 1 million students who use or become eligible for OPT each year. These programs create a large supply of foreign labor for roles that often overlap with the entry level positions sought by recent American graduates. Given this scale, policymakers should reconsider or even eliminate these pathways in order to prioritize hiring and career development opportunities for US graduates first, ensuring that public investment in domestic education translates into stronger early career outcomes for citizens.

+1

I completely agree. As an IT contractor for a federal agency, I can tell you that around 90% of the IT workforce—including roles like helpdesk support, IT infrastructure, and software development—consists of H1B visa holders. I know so many recent computer science graduates from universities like UVA, Virginia Tech, and UMD who are actively searching for jobs, and they would jump at the chance to work as government contractors for major firms. Yet, companies like Leidos, SAIC, BAH, and CACI find ways to sidestep regulations by hiring H1B workers instead of U.S. citizens, even while qualified American CS grads are left unemployed. These big boys work around the rule by subcontracting to other smaller companies. I am incredibly frustrated and pissed off.

Agree.

Parent of May 2025 CS grad and this is a huge issue, particularly this year with Covid over hiring and the use of AI as an excuse to completely avoid newly minted CS grads. My nieces and nephews who graduated 2-4 years ago had no trouble finding jobs, have been promoted and hired this year at new companies because they have experience. What will happen to this cohort? Even new, non CS grads are struggling to get hired this year.
2nd gen Indian American here

[Anonymous]

Unemployment rate for 18- 27 yrs old is ~10%. Means out of 100 that are looking for a job , 90 get it.

There are at least 20-30 % of them who should have been in trades but were caught in the frenzy of getting college education that became vogue in 2010s…

Well live and learn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Purely anecdotal but my 26 grad at a SLAC and most of their friends that had decent internships after junior years have received return offers

That’s great!! Can you share which fields or industries? How did they get their internships?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The demand for business majors just keeps going up and up. They are increasingly looking to hire graduates with training in finance.

Who exactly is hiring finance majors?

[Anonymous]

Finance jobs at IB, hedge funds, asset managers typically go to the top 20% of the class at T20 universities and they increasingly are kids with deep math backgrounds—think 5-10 courses beyond multi. Filter out the nepo kids and a few kids of the well connected and it’s mostly mathletes getting these jobs in 2025 and overwhelmingly they did the junior summer internship and got a return offer. Start early if you want this path; applications open February of sophomore year for junior summer internships. Most pay well above $100k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Finance jobs at IB, hedge funds, asset managers typically go to the top 20% of the class at T20 universities and they increasingly are kids with deep math backgrounds—think 5-10 courses beyond multi. Filter out the nepo kids and a few kids of the well connected and it’s mostly mathletes getting these jobs in 2025 and overwhelmingly they did the junior summer internship and got a return offer. Start early if you want this path; applications open February of sophomore year for junior summer internships. Most pay well above $100k.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need teachers, nurses and mental health professionals. Most of these jobs will not help pay off tons of student loans (though some places have loan forgiveness programs) but they are important, meaningful jobs.

Not everyone needs to be a consultant, investment banker, lawyer, AI whiz, or dermatologist. And not everyone needs to live in their favorite big city.

All of those jobs require more school. If someone can't get a job now, I'm not sure they want to take on more debt because who knows if the jobs will be there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Purely anecdotal but my 26 grad at a SLAC and most of their friends that had decent internships after junior years have received return offers

That has ZERO bearing on this discussion. The job landscape has been decimated since your 26yo graduated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Purely anecdotal but my 26 grad at a SLAC and most of their friends that had decent internships after junior years have received return offers

That has ZERO bearing on this discussion. The job landscape has been decimated since your 26yo graduated.

Class of 2026 graduate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Purely anecdotal but my 26 grad at a SLAC and most of their friends that had decent internships after junior years have received return offers

That has ZERO bearing on this discussion. The job landscape has been decimated since your 26yo graduated.

Class of 2026 graduate

Wait till they're deferred, like many have been for 2025 graduates. I find it breathtaking you think you know what you're talking about since your kid got an internship.

I have no dog in this fight because my 2025 grad got a job after hustling after 2 impressive internships. But, I'm not TA who will say that because he has a job, everyone should not worry.

[Anonymous]

^^ offer after internship