Survey: The Economy, AI Have 2025 Grads Worried for Their Careers
Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images News- Career platform Handshake surveyed college seniors about their career goals and priorities.
- 56% of seniors are somewhat or very pessimistic about starting their careers in the current economy.
- Almost all respondents were familiar with generative AI, but 62% were somewhat or very concerned about the technology’s impact.
- Nearly three-quarters of all respondents said they expect to use AI tools in the workplace.
As the class of 2025 prepares to graduate and enter the workforce, college seniors are facing the challenge of navigating an unstable economy and competitive job market.
A new survey of class of 2025 students by career platform Handshake found that over half are somewhat or very pessimistic about starting their careers in the current economy, with computer science majors being the most pessimistic.
The majority of respondents also described themselves as “somewhat” or “very” concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). However, over three-quarters said they expect to use AI in the workplace.
Seniors Are Worried About the Current Economy
Computer science majors were the most concerned about their career prospects given the current job market and economy, with 28% of graduating students describing themselves as “very pessimistic” — an increase of 10 percentage points from class of 2024 graduates.
The percentage of “very pessimistic” graduates has also risen among humanities, engineering, and social sciences majors over the past year.
In contrast, this sentiment declined or stayed the same among physical sciences, business, and health professions majors.
Soon-to-Be Grads Worry AI Will Impact Their Job Prospects
Some of the pessimism may come from the increased prevalence of AI in the workplace. While nearly all graduating seniors are familiar with AI tools, 62% say they are “somewhat” or “very” concerned about the impact of generative AI — a significant increase from 44% just two years ago.
Concerns over AI have risen among all surveyed majors over the past couple years.
Computer science and humanities have experienced the most substantial increase, with a 17-percentage-point and 14-percentage-point rise, respectively, in students who have reported being “highly worried” about the impact that generative AI tools will have on their careers.
Despite the worry, 60% of seniors report using generative AI tools at least once a week, and 77% expect to use AI in the workplace.
Most seniors believe using AI to message a recruiter or write a resume or cover letter is acceptable. However, they are mostly against using the technology to complete a project for a job or creative assignment.
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Small Employers Are In, Government Is Out
College seniors are applying to even more jobs than in past years. As of March 2025, the average class of 2025 student had submitted over 20% more applications than a class of 2024 student at the same time last year.
Handshake said it’s “a trend that reflects heightened anxiety and urgency around the early career job search, while simultaneously contributing to increased competition for jobs.”
Handshake reports that a third of full-time job applications submitted on the platform have gone to organizations with fewer than 250 employees.
Small employers have become more popular in recent graduating classes, rising from 25% of applications from the class of 2022 to 37% from the class of 2025. Meanwhile, applications to large employers with over 5,000 employees declined from 45% to 34% over the same period.
College seniors are also less interested in applying to government jobs than prior classes. The government lost over 1 percentage point of the class of 2025 full-time job applications compared to the class of 2024, the most significant decrease after the technology industry.
Given the expected 200,000-job reduction in the federal workforce, and the 100,000 federal employees fired so far, seniors are placing their bets elsewhere.
Real estate and construction, financial services, law and politics, and manufacturing saw application increases in this year’s graduating class.
Job Location Is Important to Seniors, Remote Work Is Not
The two most popular factors for college seniors applying for a job were desired location (73%) and job stability (70%). More than two-thirds of seniors also said that finding a job near their family is a moderate to high priority.
While job positions near their college were ranked as “low” or “not a priority,” more than half of college seniors’ job applications were within 250 miles of their school.
One of the factors that mattered the least was fully remote work. More than 80% of seniors said they preferred in-person work for their first job after graduation, with just under half reporting they want to work in person for the majority of their career.