That is sobering - and for those who diminish job posting statistics, I’m not sure why.
I’m glad most are still finding - at least most of those who report.
But those are big increases.
Thanks for sharing.
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After 13 years of schooling, and 27 months in the Peace Corps, one of my kids started their first “real” job today! I’m looking forward to hearing about it all at the end of the week.
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Cornell’s numbers have also been released for the class of '24 - 8.7% still seeking employment for the class of '24.
College of Engineering -14% https://career.cornell.edu/outcomes/#!eWVhcj0yMDI0O2RpdmlzaW9uPUNvbGxlZ2Ugb2YgRW5naW5lZXJpbmc=
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I just looked at the Berkeley first destination survey results and its pretty grim for the class of 2024 relative to class of 2023. With N > 1100 on both surveys, the “Still looking” cohort among CS/EECS grads went from 16% to 23%. I want to see if class of 2025 is better or worse.
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Based on these numbers I would tell any student with an offer in hand to take it. And those without an offer, work whatever networks you have.
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Crazy that everyone talks about UCB as the golden ticket but as I recall always has a high % looking.
ya, I attribute much of that to survey methodology, timing, bias, response rates and other generic issues. IMO, its much more informative to look at changes over time rather than snapshots.
Lots of people will tell you UCB is indeed a golden ticket. I lost count of the # of times CEOs who just raised a huge Series A round have directly messaged S22 and his EECS friends to join their firm. Clearly even at UCB there are challenges faced by the bottom quartile of a major which had a pretty easy going CS declaration policy in the past.
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Wow those are some seriously troubling stats - thank you for sharing @momofboiler1 - I think the '25 numbers will look even worse when available.
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I don’t think students who didn’t get internships are “cherry picked outliers”. On cc people seem to not realize this.
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I think what’s weird about the current dynamic is that the macro trend of a soberingly bad CS market is a function of a massive AI bubble that is also adding jobs at break neck speed. Its TBD if the cannibalization of a future CS market creates a short term CS bubble in 2025-26.
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My friends’ kids went to our state school, UMass Amherst, comp sci. So far, many have not been hired. Kids and parents are stressed out. One mother has felt guilty for suggesting that her kid choose comp sci.way back.
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Not really, since the jobs being created are not ones where employers are willing to hire the available labor for. Technological change that changes the types of labor in demand, business fads that overdo the changes in labor demand, the tendency of employers to want five years of experience in something that has existed for only a year or so, and the very rapid pace of such changes (faster than existing workers can retrain or students in school can change their major or subspecialty in major) can mean that changes in the labor market can be very disruptive and career-ending for many (including those who never get started because they job their education and training is aimed at has been obsoleted faster than they were able to complete their education).
To make an analogy to the past, there were probably many CS graduates in 2001-2003 whose computing careers ended before they could get started.
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Is it also from an increased amount of students ? I don’t know the #s but seems so.
what you describe and what I am theorizing are not incompatible. I am already seeing massive AI hiring bubble - especially in the bay area. CS grads with strong fundamentals and AI fluency are being snapped up even at the entry level. Macro trends can be true in aggregate and dramatically false in localized ways.
As an illustration, SF office leasing activity reached a 10-yr high in Q1 2025 and AI focused firms accounted for 90% of the leases in Q2 2024.
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What does one study to gain AI skills vs other facets of CS?
A student can choose to take the AI course(s) as part of their upper level CS electives. A student can also try to do undergraduate research or seek internships in AI, although getting such may be difficult or competitive if AI is popular.
Of course, if the students today focus on AI, but it turns out to be a business fad bubble, and they do not choose other courses that relate to the hot new thing / business fad when they graduate, they could be in the same situation as today’s graduates who did not choose enough AI in their studies.
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We read so many times about an education teaches you to think, read, and write, etc.
Hope it teaches adaptability too. Still most seem to be getting jobs. At least via the stats.
Hopefully others will successfully pivot.
People are often more adaptable than employers give them credit for. Unfortunately, adaptability rarely gets the job, especially with employers who want to see five years of experience in something that has existed for only a year or two. But it can be very helpful when one is in a job and looking for ways to broaden and deepen one’s skills and move into other roles within the employer.
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Agreed.And who knows what the hiring landscape will look like in 4 years?
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Sam Altman is claiming that Gen Z are the luckiest group of people ever. In ten years time they will be working super high paid jobs in space.
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