{"id":2200,"date":"2026-06-25T12:41:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2200"},"modified":"2026-06-25T12:41:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:41:20","slug":"gen-z-graduates-are-blaming-ai-for-their-unemployment-woes-when-they-should-be-looking-somewhere-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2200","title":{"rendered":"Gen Z graduates are blaming AI for their unemployment woes when they should be looking somewhere else"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cMany have been quick to blame the gap on ChatGPT\u2019s November 2022 release and the broader rise of AI,\u201d Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok said in a recent blog post. \u201cBut the AI-exposed sectors where these graduates cluster are also the most sensitive to Fed tightening, trade-war uncertainty and slowing immigration, so the entry-level squeeze is far more likely a product of the general low-hire, low-fire labor market than of a technology that companies had barely begun to deploy when the gap emerged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Exclusive: A former Apple engineer thinks AI infrastructure is built for the wrong future. Investors just gave him $80 million to fix it<\/a><\/p>\n

The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has held stubbornly at 5.6%, about the same as it was a year ago. Recent graduate unemployment is considerably higher than the 4.2% unemployment rate for all workers, which is already its highest in four years, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Slok noted a divergence in unemployment rates between Gen Z graduates and the general population beginning around April 2022, about six months before ChatGPT\u2019s release, leading him to conclude that other factors must be behind the generation\u2019s widening unemployment.<\/p>\n

He explained that while unemployment for college graduates and recent college graduates has exceeded the broader unemployment rate, the gap between these numbers has remained stable, both prior to and after OpenAI introduced ChatGPT nearly four years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Apollo economist\u2019s observation sheds light on a disconnect Gen Z is facing as it enters the workforce: AI is stirring anxiety and resentment, despite young people facing a slew of economic challenges that is actually making their job searches an uphill battle.<\/p>\n

Gen Z has made their attitude toward AI clear: According to an iCIMS Workforce Report from January, more than half (51%) of Gen Z feel AI poses the greatest threat to their job security. It appears part of this anxiety comes from how companies are talking about AI: Companies like Meta are pushing employees to deploy more AI tools, but at the same time are citing the technology as reasons behind layoffs and hiring reductions. Glassdoor\u2019s 2026 Worklife Trends Midyear Check-In found this rhetoric is taking a toll on workers, with 53% of discussions about AI on the platform being negative and 43% positive, compared to last year, when 41% were negative and 55% positive.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe hype around AI and rapidly-changing capabilities may be stoking anxiety for workers across many different occupations and industries, who fear that their jobs may be safe from AI automation right now but may not be in a few years,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

But as anxiety mounts, data on the true impact of AI on the workforce remains muddied: A first-of-its-kind Stanford study published last year reified this fear, finding AI had a \u201csignificant and disproportionate impact on entry-level workers in the U.S. labor market,\u201d including a 13% relative decline in early-career worker employment. However, Yale Budget Lab has found no meaningful changes in churn or length of unemployment in jobs with both high or no exposure to AI, indicating that if AI-related labor changes are happening, it\u2019s not at a large enough scale for data to pick up on it.<\/p>\n

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Experts like Cal Newport, a computer scientist and author of the book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World <\/em>blame tech leaders for stoking this AI-related anxiety through \u201cdoom trolling,\u201d or catastrophizing the impacts of AI in public forums. In a New York Times<\/em> op-ed published last week, he posited that tech companies are engaging in doom trolling perhaps to amplify the power of their technologies ahead of key IPOs or to recruit talent. However, he warned, it\u2019s coming at the expense of the mental wellness of the population trying to make sense of how this technology will affect them.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis could have been a period of hopeful innovation, but instead our emotions are being manipulated by Silicon Valley\u2019s self-serving and morally untenable addiction to doom trolling,\u201d he said. \u201cThis communication strategy has to stop. The harm it\u2019s causing to the public\u2019s mental health has arguably outweighed the benefits that A.I. has so far delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more As an immigrant turned entrepreneur and college president, here is why I celebrate our nation as it turns 250<\/a><\/p>\n

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Economists including Apollo\u2019s Slok have argued that while data on AI\u2019s true labor impact is cloudy, there\u2019s plenty of salient reasons why Gen Z might have trouble finding a job. He cited a February analysis he conducted looking at AI-sensitive jobs and found that since late 2022, those same high-exposure industries\u2014such as warehousing and storage, payroll services, and transportation support roles\u2014were also impacted by trade uncertainty, a slowdown in immigration-driven labor supply, and a contractionary monetary policy. Employment in AI-exposured jobs was more highly correlated to when the Federal Reserve began hiking rates in early 2022, making it challenging to ascertain if AI is the driving force behind labor challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe slowdown in employment in AI-exposed sectors is likely driven by some combination of all these factors rather than only AI,\u201d Slok wrote.<\/p>\n

Economists have indeed warned of the trade and immigration policies\u2019 impact on hiring. Pantheon Macroeconomics analysts Samuel Tombs and Oliver Allen argued in a note last year that tariffs were suppressing wage growth as companies look to claw back shrinking margins as a result of more import taxes. While 2026 jobs numbers have been stronger than the year before, weak hiring rates have been a throughline, and this mentality among companies to preserve margins may extend to hiring.<\/p>\n

\u201cOftentimes when there is heightened uncertainty, it\u2019s just difficult for businesses and people to make decisions in real time,\u201d Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told Fortune<\/em> last year. \u201cAnd so that slows down employment. It slows down all those processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown has had a similar impact on U.S. employment. A published earlier this year found falling labor force participation among U.S.-born workers age 16 and older, leading economists to conclude that not only is the immigrant workforce shrinking, but the absence of immigrant workers is also leaving U.S. companies with fewer resources to grow business and increase hiring on domestic-born workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost economic research shows that immigration increases employment opportunities for the U.S.-born, so it would not be surprising if reducing immigration harms American workers,\u201d labor economist and NFAP senior fellow Mark Regets said in the report.<\/p>\n

Altogether, these factors create a low-hire, low-fire job market, which disproportionately impacts Gen Z. A Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis report published this week found that the employment-to-population ratio between 16-to-24-year-olds and -25-to-64-year olds has grown since 2023, suggesting when hiring slows, young people who rely on new job openings are the most impacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt times during the business cycle, the labor market can appear strong on the surface while becoming much less hospitable to new entrants, who are often young workers,\u201d Fed researchers wrote.<\/p>\n

Read more A big look at the state of housing in America: Boomers won\u2019t sell, millennials can\u2019t buy, and Gen Z gets to watch the whole thing sort itself out<\/a><\/p>\n

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While AI companies sow anxiety around their technologies, there\u2019s evidence elsewhere of different economic factors actually driving employment challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gen-z"],"yoast_head":"\nGen Z graduates are blaming AI for their unemployment woes when they should be looking somewhere else - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2200\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gen Z graduates are blaming AI for their unemployment woes when they should be looking somewhere else - 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