The unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22 to 27 hit 5.6% at the end of last year—well above the overall rate of 4.2%—and more than 40% of employed young graduates are working jobs that don't typically require a degree. Career centers across the country are reporting fewer employers showing up to spring recruiting events, and students are applying to hundreds of jobs with little to show for it.
The primary culprit isn't AI, at least not yet. Economists point to a "low hire, low fire" labor market in which job openings have trended down while layoffs remain low, creating a broad hiring stasis that hits first-time job seekers hardest. The slowdown is concentrated in tech, media, accounting, and consulting—the industries that have historically absorbed the most young graduates. A longer-term demographic factor compounds the problem: older workers are staying in white-collar jobs longer, reducing movement up the job ladder and cutting demand for entry-level replacements.
AI is adding anxiety to an already difficult situation. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has predicted the technology could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, and a Stanford study found employment declines for early-career workers in AI-exposed fields. For hiring managers building entry-level pipelines, the Class of 2026 is entering one of the most competitive markets in recent memory—and the structural headwinds aren't letting up.
Read more via The New York Times
The U.S. issued roughly 250,000 fewer visas in the first eight months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024—an 11% drop—as travel bans, expanded vetting requirements, paused student visa interviews, and State Department staffing cuts combined to slow the flow of legal immigrants. For the first time in at least half a century, more immigrants left the U.S. than entered last year.
The sector-level breakdown is stark: international student visas fell more than 30%, exchange visitor visas dropped by nearly 30,000, and visas for workers and certain family members declined significantly. India and China bore the largest share of the reductions. Business and tourism visas fell nearly 3.4%—a drop of roughly 200,000—raising concerns about the U.S.'s competitiveness as a destination for international business and talent.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted last week that weaker job creation in recent months is partly tied to lower immigration, and economists warn the effects on innovation and productivity could be long-lasting. The workforce implications are direct: immigrant workers represent a disproportionate share of employment in healthcare, agriculture, construction, and technology—sectors already managing tight talent pipelines.
Read more via The Washington Post
Worker productivity grew at a 1.8% annualized rate in Q4—a steeper downward revision than economists expected and well below the 5.2% pace in Q3. The revision pushed unit labor costs sharply higher, growing at a 4.4% rate last quarter—revised up from an initial estimate of 2.8%—which economists say is too fast to be consistent with stable inflation over time. Hourly compensation rose at a 6.3% rate, also revised upward.
The longer-term trend remains solid—productivity grew 2.1% for all of 2025 and has grown at a 2.1% rate since the end of 2019—and economists expect AI adoption to give productivity a further boost going forward. But the Q4 revision raises fresh questions about the path back to the Fed's 2% inflation target, particularly as energy prices add new upward pressure.
Read more via Reuters
After losing roughly 34,000 jobs in 2025, the U.S. tech workforce is projected to grow by nearly 185,500 positions this year—a 1.9% increase that would bring the total tech labor force to just under 9.8 million workers, according to CompTIA's annual State of the Tech Workforce report. Over the next decade, tech occupation employment is expected to grow at roughly twice the rate of overall U.S. employment, with data scientists and analysts (420%), cybersecurity professionals (346%), and software developers (188%) leading the way.
AI skills are showing up across nearly every sector: more than 275,000 active job postings in January 2026 referenced AI skills, spanning both dedicated AI roles and positions requiring workers to use AI tools as part of their broader job. The seven sectors accounting for nearly three-quarters of AI skills hiring are technology, professional services, finance, manufacturing, administrative services, retail, and healthcare. Texas is projected to lead all states in new tech jobs added this year (+32,238), followed by California, Florida, New York, and Washington.
Read more via CompTIA
Policy changes related to DEI and immigration have impacted businesses more than any other regulatory development over the past year, with large employers feeling the effects most acutely, according to a new survey by Littler's Workplace Policy Institute of more than 300 HR professionals, in-house lawyers, and C-suite executives.
71% of respondents said DEI policy changes impacted their business, and 63% said immigration policies created workforce staffing challenges—up from 58% who anticipated such challenges a year ago. Some employers responded by reducing or eliminating H-1B visa sponsorships entirely. 35% said their organizations made workforce reductions as a result of regulatory and economic uncertainty, and 30% paused or reduced hiring. Manufacturing was hit hardest, with more than 40% reporting both reductions and hiring freezes.
State and local regulation is filling the federal void: nearly 9 in 10 employers said they were impacted by state and local legislative changes over the past year, with paid leave (67%), pay equity and transparency (51%), data privacy (47%), and AI use in hiring (41%) cited most often.
Read more via Littler
A new Indeed Flex survey of 1,000 retirees in the U.S. and U.K. finds that nearly one in three are either working or open to returning to work, with most preferring fewer than 20 hours per week. Three quarters say their view of retirement has changed in the past five years.
63% of retirees cite rising cost of living as their primary reason for returning, and 32% say their savings are insufficient. It's not purely about money: 52% miss social interaction, 39% miss feeling productive, and 46% describe their motivation as a mix of financial necessity and personal choice. Retail is the top industry of interest (33%), followed by freelance and consulting (30%) and hospitality (23%). For workforce planners, this is a seasoned talent pool that's increasingly available—and often bypassed in sourcing strategy.
Read more via Indeed Flex
Weeks after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran prompted Iranian retaliation and the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz—which carries 20% of the world's crude supply—the economic fallout is moving faster than most forecasters anticipated. U.S. oil prices have risen as high as $120 a barrel, double the price at the start of 2026. The average gallon of diesel has surpassed $5.20 nationwide, a roughly 40% increase from a month ago, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell has acknowledged the effects on core inflation are "real and material."
For most freight companies, the 40% diesel spike translates to a roughly 10% overall cost increase. Consumer prices won't rise immediately, but costs are already moving through the supply chain—particularly for fresh food. The Strait closure is also threatening the global food supply: the Middle East accounts for more than a third of global urea exports and roughly a quarter of ammonia, and urea prices have hit their highest level in more than three years. Experts warn the impact to the global food supply "could be catastrophic" if the conflict extends.
Read more via Politico, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Axios
Globally, the World Trade Organization projects trade volume growth of 1.9% this year—dropping to 1.4% if elevated oil prices persist—down sharply from 4.6% in 2025. Eurozone consumer confidence fell to minus 16.3 in March, its lowest since October 2023. Germany's economy alone could face a €40 billion hit over two years if oil holds at $100 a barrel. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson warns that sustained higher oil prices "could have a more material effect" on inflation and consumer spending than a short-term spike would suggest, and expects unemployment to hold near 4.4% through year end—though with risks "skewed to the downside."
Read more via Reuters, ING, Federal Reserve
Just 22% of workers believe their job is safe from elimination, even as global unemployment sits near historic lows, according to a new ADP Research survey of more than 39,000 workers across 36 countries. The performance implications are direct: workers who felt their jobs were safe were six times more likely to be fully engaged, 3.3 times more likely to report high productivity, and twice as likely to say they have no intention of leaving.
Only 19% of workers reported being fully engaged on the job in 2025—unchanged from the prior year—meaning more than 80% of workers are not fully giving it their all. Confidence in job security rises sharply with seniority: 18% of individual contributors strongly agreed their job was safe, compared to 35% of C-suite executives. Workers who use AI daily were four times more likely than non-users to say they felt less productive than they could be—but were also twice as likely to be fully engaged and far less likely to report negative work stress. 62% of workers put in up to five unpaid hours per week, while 38% work six or more extra hours; the workers logging the most unpaid time were the most engaged but also the most likely to be actively job hunting.
Read more via ADP Research, HR Dive
For the first time since Gallup began tracking workforce life evaluations, more workers say they are struggling (49%) than thriving (46%), according to a new Gallup survey of more than 22,000 U.S. workers. Job market confidence has collapsed: just 28% of workers say now is a good time to find a quality job, down from 70% in mid-2022. The hiring rate has dropped to 3.2%—its lowest level since March 2013, when unemployment was 7.5%. There are now more unemployed people (7.4 million) than available jobs (6.9 million), a reversal from the post-pandemic years.
College-educated workers are now the most pessimistic about the job market—a sharp reversal from previous years. Just 19% of workers with a college degree think now is a good time to find a job, compared to 35% of workers without one. 43% of workers say they stay in their current role primarily because leaving would be too difficult or costly, with 69% citing inability to afford losing their pay or benefits. Nearly half of active job seekers describe the search experience as negative, and more than half who applied for jobs in the past month didn't get a single interview.
Read more via Gallup, ABC News
New research published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that abusive supervisor behaviors—including ridicule and privacy invasion—can strip employees of their sense of agency to the point where they feel like "tools" or "cogs in a machine" rather than people. The effect, which researchers call "organizational dehumanization," leads to severe burnout and a breakdown in workplace collaboration.
The dehumanization plays out in two ways: internally, employees feel they can't be their authentic selves at work, leading to emotional exhaustion; socially, they disengage from voluntary teamwork because they feel powerless to influence their environment. Standard fairness initiatives aren't enough to counter it—the fix requires a more fundamental shift toward "human-centric management" that actively restores employee agency. The research was conducted across both China and North America, suggesting the dynamic isn't limited to one workplace culture.
Read more via HR Dive, Portland State University
Only 32% of the federal workforce is satisfied with and engaged in their jobs, according to a new survey of more than 11,000 federal employees by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. 58% said their engagement has gotten worse over the past year. The drops at individual agencies were stark: engagement scores at the Commerce Department fell from 72.7 to 24.8, at the Justice Department from 61.3 to 20.1, and at the Social Security Administration from 54.2 to 15.2.
Only 7.5% of respondents said political leaders generate high levels of motivation in the workforce. The share of workers who feel confident they can report a suspected violation of law without retaliation fell from 71.9% in 2024 to 22.5% today. The White House pushed back on the findings, saying its own internal survey showed no collapse in engagement.
Read more via Politico
72% of U.S. employees suspect return-to-office mandates are a "stealth layoff" strategy designed to push people out without paying severance, according to a new survey by resume platform Enhancv of 1,000 full-time workers who have experienced RTO mandates.
46% admit to "coffee badging"—swiping into the office just long enough to be seen before leaving to work elsewhere. 36% have applied for new jobs while sitting at their office desk, and another 36% have started a side hustle since their mandate was announced. 32% said they've intentionally reduced their daily output as a form of quiet protest. Trust scores dropped to 50 out of 100 among strictly monitored employees, with Gen Z workers scoring nearly 20 points lower than baby boomers.
Read more via Benefits Canada
Researchers at Cornell University tested 1,000 office workers on their ability to distinguish genuine business insight from randomly generated corporate nonsense—and the results weren't flattering for fans of "growth-hacking" and "blue-sky thinking." Workers who rated corporate jargon as insightful scored lower on analytical thinking, fluid intelligence, and practical decision-making, and consistently chose worse solutions when presented with real workplace scenarios.
The researcher built a "corporate bullshit generator" to produce statements like "we will actualize a renewed level of cradle-to-grave credentialing," then mixed them with real quotes from Fortune 500 executives. A lot of people couldn't tell the difference. The effect wasn't limited to less-educated workers—participants included people with bachelor's degrees and PhDs in HR, accounting, marketing, and finance. There is one upside: workers susceptible to corporate speak tended to rate their managers as more charismatic and visionary, and reported higher job satisfaction.
Read more via The Guardian
Leading AI models aren't as good at offering an unbiased outside perspective as many leaders assume. New research from Harvard Business Review tested leading AI models—including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others—on thousands of strategic decisions and found the models consistently gravitate toward whatever sounds good in modern business culture rather than what makes sense for a specific situation. The researchers call it "trendslop."
Across almost every model tested, AI consistently favored differentiation over cost leadership, augmentation over automation, and long-term thinking over short-term—regardless of context. Better prompting didn't fix it, and neither did adding more company context. The biases persisted even when researchers provided detailed industry-specific scenarios. The underlying reason: AI models are trained on internet text that reflects popular business culture, so they essentially predict the most socially desirable answer rather than the most strategically sound one. Knowing how to prompt, pressure-test, and interrogate AI output is now a core leadership competency—not an optional add-on.
Read more via Harvard Business Review
After years of hype and heavy investment, several recent surveys are pointing in the same direction: workplace AI use is not growing the way the industry expected, and in some measures is actually declining. US Census Bureau data shows the share of Americans using AI to produce goods and services at large companies ticked down from 12% to 11% between surveys. Among mid-sized companies, the share reporting no AI use in the prior two weeks rose from 74% in March to 81% in the most recent survey. A Stanford economist tracking generative AI use at work found usage dropped from 46% of respondents in June to 37% by September.
Executives are increasingly pointing to "AI fatigue" among employees as a factor. A December 2024 EY survey found more than half of senior executives felt they were failing in their role of supporting AI adoption at their companies. The stakes are significant: the industry is expected to spend $5 trillion on AI infrastructure through 2030—a figure that requires substantial growth in both enterprise and consumer AI revenue to justify.
Read more via Futurism
While 83% of HR decision-makers say AI helps employees work faster, 67% say it is also creating "new points of friction and mistrust" between employers and employees, according to a new MetLife survey. 61% of employees are worried about the ethical and safety risks of AI, including bias and lack of accountability. 59% fear it will make their jobs obsolete, and 24% feel they are competing with AI at work.
"Workslop"—AI-generated content that looks polished but lacks substance—is adding to the friction. 53% of workers admit to sharing it, while 40% say they've received it from colleagues in the past month. "It shifts the burden from the sender to the receiver," said one researcher, making collaboration harder and eroding trust between coworkers.
Read more via CNBC
The Department of Labor launched a free AI literacy course delivered entirely by text message. Workers can enroll by texting "READY" to 20202 and complete the seven-day course in about 10 minutes a day—no laptop or internet connection required. The "Make America AI-Ready" initiative was developed in partnership with education technology company Arist as part of the Trump administration's broader AI workforce strategy. (U.S. Department of Labor)
A federal court ruling is a wake-up call for employees using AI at work. A federal judge in New York ruled in February that a defendant's searches on an AI platform were not protected by attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine, because the communications were made to a third party without the involvement of a lawyer. Legal experts say sensitive information shared with AI tools is not confidential, and that businesses should move quickly to establish AI acceptable use policies to limit legal and reputational exposure. (National Law Review)
A healthcare AI platform is letting doctors ask complex questions in plain English. Lumeris expanded its "Tom" primary care AI platform with a new feature called "Ask Tom," which pulls together clinical, claims, pharmacy, and social determinants data and lets health system leaders pose complex analytical questions and get immediate answers and visualizations. The launch comes as nearly 100 million Americans lack access to primary care and the U.S. faces a projected shortage of nearly 90,000 physicians over the next decade. (Fierce Healthcare)
Hungary: Job seekers in Hungary are finding work significantly faster than a year ago, with the average job search dropping from just over five months to under four months, according to a new survey by job portal Profession.hu. The share of job seekers who were unemployed when they started looking rose from 53% to 61%, while employers are increasingly focused on narrowing candidate pools earlier in the hiring process. Salary and benefits remain the top priority for workers evaluating new roles, cited by 84% of respondents. (Budapest Business Journal)
Japan: Japanese companies have agreed to raise wages by more than 5% for a third consecutive year, with Rengo—the country's largest labor union group—reporting an average wage hike of 5.26% in preliminary results from annual labor negotiations. Major employers including Toyota, Hitachi, and NEC agreed to meet union demands in full as competition for workers remains intense. (Reuters)
United Kingdom: Mental health is now one of the top reasons UK workers call in sick, with nearly a third of employers citing stress, anxiety, or depression as a commonly reported cause of absence, according to a new government survey. The findings come ahead of a significant change to UK sick pay rules taking effect April 6, when workers will become eligible for statutory sick pay on their first day of illness rather than their fourth, and the minimum earnings requirement will be removed. (SIA)
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