Recent Grads Are Waiting Longer for Offers, and Employers Who Hire Entry-Level Get First Pick
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Recent college graduates who are still unemployed have been looking for work an average of 22.7 weeks, more than 5 months, according to a new analysis released Tuesday by the Richmond Fed. The average for all unemployed workers is 24.8 weeks, so a degree buys a recent grad a search that is about 2 weeks shorter, by my math.
The unemployment rate for recent grads, defined as ages 22 to 27 with a bachelor’s degree or higher, is 5.2%. That is the lowest in a year and better than late 2025, but as of September it sat 1 percentage point above the rate for all workers. Before 2018, the pattern was reversed, with recent grads facing lower unemployment than the country as a whole. The reversal started before COVID and before AI.
The gaps inside the group are wider. Recent grad men have been unemployed an average of 24.1 weeks, compared with 20.4 for women, a difference of nearly 4 weeks by my math. Non-White grads, defined in the Census survey as Black, Asian, Native American, or multiracial, average 26.8 weeks, compared with 19.9 for White grads. Both gaps are larger than they were from 1994 to 2018, when the figures were 19.3 weeks for men and 17.7 for women, and 21.9 weeks for non-White grads and 17.0 for White grads.*
The number I’d focus on is the size of the head start. A degree still helps, but a search that is only about 2 weeks shorter than the average worker’s means most of the advantage is gone, and the authors say it began fading before AI arrived. I covered how AI is affecting entry-level hiring and a study on senior and junior hiring, and both fit a squeeze on entry-level roles that has been building for years.
The 22.7 weeks is more than 5 months, so students should treat the search like a part-time job during senior year. Applications, conversations with people in the field, and internships all need to happen before graduation, because the clock starts when you walk across the stage. If you’re a new graduate, see what’s open right now.
Employers have a different read. A long-running squeeze on entry-level hiring leaves a lot of qualified people waiting for someone to give them a start. Companies that keep building an entry-level pipeline will have their pick of that group, and talking to us about hiring is a good way to start building one.
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Upwork Job Posts Pair Familiar Tasks in New Ways, and AI Project Budgets Are 52% Higher
Upwork Research Institute and OpenAI’s Economic Research team compared how people use ChatGPT at work with what businesses post on Upwork, in a report by Teng Liu published November 10. People use ChatGPT mostly for writing and advice. Businesses post on Upwork more often for technical implementation, visual production, and finished deliverables.
The report analyzes Upwork job posts through 2025. In posts for AI-related projects, 8% of task pairs were combinations that were rare before generative AI arrived in late 2022, compared with 2% in other posts. Upwork calls that more than 3 times as common. A task pair is two tasks requested in the same post.
The individual tasks are familiar and the pairings are new. Examples include AI-generated video with motion graphics, AI integration with campaign management, and chatbot development with app integration. More than half of the rare pairs join an AI task with a traditional one.
AI-related posts average only slightly more tasks, 3.35 versus 3.19, so the scope difference comes from the combinations. After accounting for work category and posting month, fixed-price budgets for AI-related projects were 52% higher. Freelancers on hired hourly AI contracts logged 41% more hours in their first 90 days. Posted hourly rates were only about 1.5% higher.
The report’s takeaway is that AI may change the work people do before it changes job titles. Upwork says a company could keep the same title and headcount while handing parts of the job to AI, or asking one person to coordinate what several specialists did before.
The finding I’d focus on is the one about titles. A marketing role might now include building the automation behind the campaign, and a video job might include producing the AI footage along with the motion graphics around it. If your job description still lists what the role did 3 years ago, you’ll attract people who can do the old version of the job, so write it around the work you need done this year.
For job seekers, the money detail matters most. Budgets were 52% higher and freelancers worked 41% more hours, while hourly rates barely moved, so the work grows before the rate does. The person who can connect 2 of these tasks gets more work, and the bargaining power to ask for higher pay comes later. I looked at how the same pressure shows up in office jobs in my October jobs report and white-collar analysis.
If you’re rewriting a job description around how the work has changed, explore our staffing services and we can help you find people who can do the new version of the job.
