DAVID COOK / ASST. NEWS EDITOR

As the Class of 2026 kicks off their senior year at the University of San Diego, they are not just stressing over midterms and finals, but also their careers post-graduation.

Data supports this anxiety. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that the United States estimated 911,000 fewer jobs added in the past year — the largest downward revision in BLS history. This suggests that the job market is weaker than many students, employers and policymakers previously believed.

Currently, unemployment rates are at 4.3% — a figure generally considered healthy for the economy. Some economists, though, warn that there may be another issue brewing beneath this statistic. According to the BLS, unemployment among 16–24 year-olds jumped to 10.5% — the highest rate since the pandemic. This represented a notable increase in the unemployment rate for this demographic, as the rate stood at 9.7% in May 2025.

Unemployment of U.S. graduates spiked in 2020 and is on a steady rise. Photo courtesy of @MikeZaccardi/X

Students studying computer science are among the most impacted. After hearing for years about six-figure salaries and the skyrocketing demand for programmers, many are now facing a hiring freeze in the tech industry. Seniors who are about to graduate are left in a bind as big businesses cut back on internships, cancel return offers and postpone start dates. 

Students like Maggie Cope, a USD senior double-majoring in computer science and business administration, are taking the hardest hit while roles in artificial intelligence replace entry-level coding roles and hiring increasingly favors referrals over open applications.

“I applied to almost 100 internships last year,” Cope said. “A lot of my friends had the same experience. People were applying constantly and hearing nothing back.”

Once she began applying for software engineering internships during her junior year, she said that she expected at least a few callbacks, but most of her applications were met with silence. Cope is not alone in her experiences as a computer science major. 

“I know a lot of people didn’t get internships this past summer and were applying to so many — really struggling,” Cope said. “There are fewer and fewer roles.”

She said the change in the tech-hiring landscape has been both frustrating and eye-opening. When Cope entered college, computer science seemed to be a surefire path to success.

“I remember Googling ‘best majors’ my freshman year and computer science was always at the top,” Cope said. “It felt like a safe bet. Now, senior year, I’m realizing it’s not the automatic opportunity machine I thought it was.”

Many students who secured a summer internship in software engineering were not extended return offers.

“I  know people who did amazing work and thought they had offers coming, but then the company just wasn’t hiring anymore,” Cope said. “It’s not just harder to get in, the window closes faster. You have to apply immediately. And even then, it’s often about who you know.”

Behind experiences like Cope’s is a larger shift in the economy that some experts say is being overlooked. Dr. Stephen Conroy, professor of economics at USD, believes that the market isn’t collapsing, but tightening, describing the current state of the market as “water up to the ankles.”

“We’re  not in a Great Recession or COVID-era collapse, but if job growth continues to slow or we start seeing actual job losses, that’s when it becomes water up to your knees or waist,” Conroy said.

Conroy  also  noted  that   artificial intelligence is one of the key forces hurting graduates’ job search, especially in white-collar sectors like tech, consulting and finance. Conroy also noted that the labor market has not been increasing at a healthy rate in recent months.

“Revisions are going downward, and the increase in total employment for August was very weak, only +22,000, whereas we generally expect about 200,000 net new jobs per month,” Conroy stated. “We now have about the same number of people employed in the U.S. as we did in March (163.4 million in August vs. 163.5 million in March).”

Despite  these obstacles, Conroy remains optimistic about USD’s students’ success post-graduation. Building strong relationships with professors can be the difference between finding an internship and a post-graduate job or not.

“Students sometimes underestimate how connected their professors are,” Conroy said. “That one referral could make all the difference.”

Conroy also presented another piece of advice for students who may be facing a weaker labor market in the future: to get work experience, get a leadership position in a club in their field, excel in class, increase their network and work with the career development staff at USD. 

While the numbers may suggest that the Class of 2026 may see some obstacles in their post-graduate job hunt, with a willingness to adapt, build connections and refine or reframe their skillsets, USD students are still determined to succeed post-graduation, no matter how fast the world is moving around them.

Computer science majors have experienced troubles in the job market. Photo courtesy of @sdsuengineering/Instagram