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The graduating class of 2024 may have the most trouble finding a job postgraduation compared to the last five years of graduating classes before them.

JobTest.org analyzed survey data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers to show how hiring projections for recent college graduates this year compare to previous years. NACE conducts a survey on hiring intentions for full-time and internship positions annually.

Today's college graduates are entering the workforce as the labor market cools from previously red-hot levels during the COVID-19 pandemic years. At its peak in March 2022, the country had two job openings for every unemployed person, providing workers with immense leverage to improve wages, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This spring, however, that job market has cooled off considerably with openings reaching a three-year low. As of April, there is only about one opening available per job seeker.

Hot job markets of yesteryear may have helped notch wage gains for a considerable number of recent graduates, as evidenced by the $60,000 starting salary the typical recent graduate with a bachelor's degree saw in 2023—a nearly $7,000 increase from 2019, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York data.

From the 1990s up until recently, college graduates between the ages of 22 to 27 were highly employable, meaning they tended to see lower levels of unemployment compared to the overall workforce, according to Federal Reserve Bank data. Since January 2021, however, their unemployment rate has trended slightly higher than the overall rate. In March of this year, 4.7% of recent grads were unemployed compared to 3.7% of all workers.

Even with an elevated unemployment rate in recent years, projections from employers have shown a desire to snap up grads since 2019. That trend, however, could take a slight dip for the class of 2024, depending on where they're looking to land work.

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