{"id":75297,"date":"2025-09-20T13:05:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T13:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/75297\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T13:05:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T13:05:21","slug":"recent-grads-face-tougher-odds-in-the-job-market-as-applications-rise-and-postings-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/75297\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent grads face tougher odds in the job market as applications rise and postings fall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jaimee Del Piano, 23, thought her credentials would stand out: a stellar GPA, a degree in psychology and a master&#8217;s in public policy from the University of Connecticut. She graduated in May, hoping to land a job as a child advocate.<\/p>\n<p>But after sending about 10 to 20 applications, the response hasn&#8217;t been what she had hoped for. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[They say] I haven&#8217;t had enough experience, and that&#8217;s of course challenging because I can&#8217;t get any experience without a job,&#8221; Del Piano said.<\/p>\n<p>Graduates are entering a turbulent economy, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/ai-jobs-unemployment-college-graduate\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">more competition<\/a> for entry-level positions. Job postings have declined by 15%, while the number of applications has increased by 30%, according to a recent report from Handshake, an online employment platform geared toward college students.<\/p>\n<p>Del Piano said a lot of the jobs she applied for were federal or state jobs, and believes that, a few years ago, the job market would be different.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/federal-layoffs-probationary-workers-warnings-bigger-cuts-on-way\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">thousands of federal employees lost their jobs<\/a> after President Trump initiated mass layoffs across the government.<\/p>\n<p>Del Piano&#8217;s frustrations are being felt by young job seekers around the country.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan McGonagill manages a team of interns at business.com, which helps small businesses looking to expand their reach. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They had each done multiple internships, they were parts of community groups, great GPAs,&#8221; McGonagill said.<\/p>\n<p>As the interns sent out resumes looking for work, McGonagill ran his own study, tracking each one.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 311 applications the interns sent out, 87% didn&#8217;t even get a response. Only five applicants received a scheduled interview, but none of them yielded any job offers.<\/p>\n<p>Career counselor Valerie Martinelli advises taking a personal approach to each application, like writing different cover letters, networking in person and steering clear of using generative AI.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t use AI for any of your application materials, because what a lot of employers are saying is if they think you are using AI, they think it&#8217;s disingenuous and they will automatically disqualify you,&#8221; Martinelli said.<\/p>\n<p>As for employers, Martinelli said they need to put the human touch back into human resources \u2014 and &#8220;take the 3 to 5 years experience off of your job descriptions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Del Piano is trying to remain optimistic, but with $15,000 in debt, juggling two hospitality jobs and living with her parents, it&#8217;s not easy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m learning that you have to have grit,&#8221; she said. <\/p>\n<p>      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/team\/meg-oliver\/\" class=\"content-author__name\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Meg  Oliver<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"content-author__text\">Meg Oliver is a correspondent for CBS News based in New York City. Oliver is a veteran journalist with more than two decades of reporting and anchoring experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jaimee Del Piano, 23, thought her credentials would stand out: a stellar GPA, a degree in psychology and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[79,25887,179,18,233,19,17,227],"class_list":{"0":"post-75297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-employment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-jobs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}