Courtesy of Cleveland Federal Reserve
Lewis & Clark’s class of 2025 has entered the toughest job market in years. Over the past year, labor data has indicated that recent college graduates are struggling to find work. A June 2025 national report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) indicated that 4.8% of recent college graduates aged 22-27 were unemployed.
This statistic is nearly a full percentage point higher than the unemployment rate for all workers nationwide. FRBNY figures from April, when 2025 graduates were first entering the market, indicated this number was even higher at 5.8%. However, the figures from November have not yet been released, and the recent government shutdown prevented the October data being collected. Moreover, these figures represent the highest unemployment rate for this particular demographic since the COVID-19 pandemic, which the World Health Organization classifies as ending in May of 2023. Excluding the pandemic, the figures are the highest since 2015.
The reasons for this are many, but are partly related to the evolving role of artificial intelligence, which has taken on certain positions which once operated as entry level white-collar positions. Whereas the unemployment rate among this group was just 1.98% in 2019, it now is over 3%, a full percentage increase.
To better understand how this economic trend is impacting the LC community, The Mossy Log interviewed recent LC graduates to understand their experience navigating what Time Magazine has referred to as a “tenuous job market.”
Will Trunzo ’25, a former editor for The Mossy Log, indicated that to him, the importance of undergraduate degrees has changed.
“I don’t feel necessarily that an undergraduate education is valued in hiring these days in the way it used to,” Trunzo said.
Analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRBSL) affirms Trunzo’s sentiment, indicating that undergraduate degrees may be weakening in value.
“These disparities (in employment among recent graduates) suggest that the traditional premium associated with higher education — at least for quickly landing a job — may be weakening. Recent graduates are finding themselves in an increasingly competitive environment where their educational credentials don’t guarantee the same level of employment security they once did,” the FRBSL stated in recent analysis.
The FRBSL continued, saying that, more broadly, these changes may mean a shift in the understanding of education and technology in the job market.
“These employment trends reflect broader economic forces reshaping the labor market. The concentration of unemployment increases among recent college graduates and white-collar workers suggests that traditional assumptions about education and career security may need significant revision. The data indicate that even highly educated workers in previously stable fields are not immune to economic disruption,” the FRBSL’s statement concluded.
Emma Ford ’25, another former editor for The Mossy Log, elaborated on her experience navigating this increasingly uncertain job market for recent grads.
“I think I handed in 200 applications. Indeed, LinkedIn, all of it. Called, emailed, whatever,” Ford said.
Trunzo, for his part, told a similar story of struggling to hear back from potential employers.
“I sent out, I believe it was, 103 applications. That consisted of everything from the Indeed instant applications, to full customized resume/cover letter, to interview processes. I heard back from six of those,” Trunzo said.
Ford and Trunzo also told us that while they themselves have been lucky enough to find work, many of their peers have greatly struggled to do so.
“Watching friends who are remarkably qualified, smart and driven individuals not be able to find consistent work, even part-time, or finding jobs that are uncommunicative or disrespectful of people’s time is brutal. I know someone with honors in their degree who got rejected from In-N-Out,” Ford said.
To try and understand how graduates navigated the job market during a recent period of great economic turmoil, The Mossy Log reached out to Quinn Vinlove ’21 who graduated in the middle of the pandemic. Vinlove explained that at the time of his graduation, the school had sent everyone home early for Thanksgiving break due to greatly scaled-back operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, Vinlove recounted that only one residence hall was open and the dining hall was closed. When he left for break, his future was deeply uncertain.
“I applied to a bunch of places, and I didn’t get a job offer. And so, Thanksgiving, they kind of just sent everyone home, and I had stashed the rest of my dorm stuff at my grandparents condo in Eugene, and just fully expected that I would still be kind of unemployed post-Thanksgiving. I was planning on staying down there for a little while just to apply for jobs and continue looking,” Vinlove said.
By the end of the year, however, Vinlove was able to find a job in computer programming, though the position was not his preferred option. The job Vinlove was offered required that he move across the country right away.
“I had no other options really,” Vinlove said. “They were based in Wisconsin, so I basically had to, in the middle of January, stuff everything I had into the car and drive cross country. I ended up starting right after the holidays because I didn’t have any money. I needed the job.”
While Vinlove sympathized with recent graduates, he also advised that sometimes taking a less-preferred job is the better thing to do just to get oneself started.
“I ended up where I’m at right now, because I just bit the bullet and moved to Wisconsin. A lot of people I talked to, they would rather not go somewhere else. But the reality is, I think you’re probably going to do something you absolutely hate for about a year or so post graduation,” Vinlove said.
Vinlove, who now works for a tech startup in New York and does the hiring himself, also gave some parting advice to recent graduates.
“We post jobs on LinkedIn, but we’ve had jobs that have been open for an hour, and we get like 2,000 applicants, and it’s kind of impossible to sort through 2,000 people and find like, 10 people who are the most skilled,” Vinlove said. “I didn’t realize this even when I was applying the first time, it’s much more effective to just find people’s email addresses, send them a cold email and reach out, even if someone isn’t directly in your network.”
Vinlove voiced that even if it is challenging, graduates should take as much initiative as possible to stand out to employers.
“I know a lot of new grads are having trouble finding work, there’s a lot of them, and it’s hard to really pick. It’s really hard to pick one or two really talented people out of the stack, unless you take the initiative and start reaching out,” Vinlove said.
Still, economic pains are being felt around the country and within the LC community. A recent report from the Kobeissi Letter, a prominent newsletter on capital markets, claims that a record 25.3% of all unemployed workers have four-year college degrees. That percentage is double what it was during the 2008 financial crisis.
When asked about the economic stress the job market has put on her peers, Ford said that she had heard much discussion on economic troubles for recent graduates.
“I mean, of course nobody’s going out here and saying, ‘I’m this much in debt, or I’m this broke,’ although you hear the rumors. People are still thinking, ‘Well, I got kneecapped out of the starting line. I don’t have work, or work experience to show people down the road saying I was employable out of college,’” Ford said.
This may be felt especially strongly in Oregon, which along with 21 other states are nearing economic recession this year.
As national indicators continue to shift and Oregon remains near recession, the job market facing LC’s newest graduates reflects broader pressures on recent degree-holders across the country. For now, many in the class of 2025 are navigating that landscape one application at a time.
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