Mashadipati: The Class of 2026 goes to work

In this edition of Businessweek Daily, we’re featuring stories about first jobs from the May issue of the magazine. If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, click here to sign up. Let us know what you think by emailing our editor. You can also subscribe to get the print edition.

As graduation season approaches, we talked to college students and recent grads from around the country about the challenges they face in getting hired against a backdrop of rising unemployment—and underemployment. Is it any wonder then that rich parents are ponying up for fancy career coaches for their kids? Or that Gen Z is avoiding the job search by applying to grad school or launching their own startups, even before collecting their diploma? AI is obviously on everyone’s mind, especially young tech workers in India. Maybe advice from today’s CEOs can help ease the pain—or maybe we should all be worried about our jobs.

A Dozen Young Job Hunters on What It Takes to Get Hired

Entering the workforce is especially tough right now. Just ask those trying.

Why More College Graduates Are Stuck in Jobs That Don’t Require Degrees

Almost 43% of young US grads are underemployed. Is AI or a frozen hiring market to blame?

Anxious Parents Are Spending More Than $50,000 to Land Their Kid a Job

Business is booming for the career coaches of the very young.

It’s Harder to Hide From a Bad Job Market in Grad School

Rules taking effect in July will limit federal lending for most advanced degrees to $100,000 over a lifetime.

Dhruv Shajikumar. Photographer: Kelsey McClellan for Bloomberg Businessweek

Getting Hired Is Too Hard, So They’re Starting Companies Instead

Starting your own thing can build your résumé—and maybe get you paid too.

A Bad Entry-Level Job Market Is Everyone’s Problem

A scarcity of work deprives young people of important experience and the economy of influential consumers who might otherwise stimulate demand.

What 15 Bosses Learned From Their First Big Job

Believe it or not, scooping ice cream can lead to the head office at Goldman Sachs.

Mercor co-founders Adarsh Hiremath and Brendan Foody in San Francisco. Photographer: Damien Maloney for Bloomberg Businessweek

The $10 Billion Startup Training AI to Replace the White-Collar Workforce

Mercor is promising to replicate most professional work. It was also co-founded by twentysomethings who previously never held a real job.

Consulting Used to Be a Dream First Job. AI Changed That

How firms like McKinsey, BCG and Bain are thinking about hiring now.

AI Natives Are Entering the Workforce. It’s Complicated

The promises and perils of the ChatGPT generation.

Amirul Photographer: Gayatri Ganju for Bloomberg Businessweek

India’s Computer Science Grads Are Unprepared for the AI Revolution

Companies like Infosys are running their new hires through many weeks of training to bring them up to speed on new programming tools.

How to Succeed in Your Very First Job

So you got hired. Now what?

On the Podcast

A Molotov cocktail hurled at Sam Altman’s home. Bullets fired at a city councilman who approved the building of a data center. The cultural mood around artificial intelligence has shifted, and this week on the Everybody’s Business podcast from Bloomberg Businessweek, we’re trying to make sense of it. Bloomberg News tech reporter Sarah Frier joins hosts Max Chafkin and Stacey Vanek Smith to break down what’s driving the new wave of AI backlash. Plus: The job market is rough for everyone, but especially if you’re just starting out. Businessweek senior editor Julia Rubin joins the show to talk about what Gen Z is actually up against.

Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, iHeart and the Bloomberg Terminal.

Everybody's Business

The AI Hate is Existential

The Class of 2026 goes to work