Charlie Sakmar, a Las Vegas native, immediately hops on his computer and begins his job search right after he wakes up in the morning. For a few hours, he scrolls through LinkedIn, Indeed and Glass Door looking for a public relations job.
He recently moved back home to live with his parents after graduating with a journalism degree from University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) this past May to save money while unemployed. He said he spends most of his day waiting to hear back from the places he applied to.
“But what I learned is that it seems like everyone is struggling right now, because even when I’m applying to places that should be entry level, I’m getting beaten out by people who have years of experience,” Sakmar said.
He said companies take a while to get back. And he never knows if they’re just taking a while to process all of the applications or if he is completely being ghosted.
“I thought with the amount of stuff I had done in journalism school that it would be easy,” Sakmar said.
Monica Haynes, director of the bureau of business and economic research at the University of Minnesota Duluth, said there are many competing factors such as AI, tariffs, and the previous pandemic pushing the labor market in different directions.
“You are passionate about breaking into a certain field and whatever that might be you really have to do some diligent work, like reaching out with a personal request to someone at the firm and asking to do informational interviews or requesting to have coffee,” Haynes said.
Haynes said professionals in the scientific field or other jobs relying on federal funding have experienced lay offs. And new college graduates will have an even harder time breaking into the job market because they’re competing with professionals who have years of experience under their belt.
Big companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and UPS have had mass layoffs as well. Earlier this fall, Amazon alone cut about 4% of its corporate workforce.
According to a report by Burning Glass Institute, the increasing number of college graduates and the declining amount of entry-level professional roles has resulted in a hyper-competitive job market. The unemployment rate among young individuals with at least a bachelor’s degree is at 6.2% in June of this year which is a one percent increase from six or seven years ago while rates for those with less education have generally declined.
Some college grads have resorted to being underemployed.
Henry Dalton has a degree in computer science and engineering from UNR but currently works as a barista at Dutch Bros part-time. He said he’s still looking for jobs related to his degree but has bills to pay. He’s sent more applications than he can count.
“During my last semester of college, somewhere in the range of four to five hundred, since then probably about 100 to 200. But it’s definitely not unusual for people in the computer science field to apply to 1,000 before getting a job,” Dalton said.
Dalton thought a degree in this field meant there would be a job waiting for him post graduation. Instead, he has about $47,000 in student loans and still no prospects for a full-time job.
In the meantime, Sakmar accepted an unpaid internship role for a concert venue in Vegas. He said at least it’s a position related to his degree.
“I’ve definitely gotten bored some days and just cold called offices asking like ‘Hey, do you have any positions? Because I really want a job, please call me back,’” Sakmar said.
Sakmar recently added ‘WILLING TO RELOCATE’ on his LinkedIn bio. He said he’s willing to move wherever the job is.
