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Excerpt from BU Today | By: Alene Bouranova | May 27,<\/span>\u00a02025\u00a0| <\/span>Photo: Unsplash<\/p>\n When you\u2019re new to the job market, job-hunting can be tricky no matter what. But for 2025 grads, tricky is just one way to describe what\u2019s happening out there.<\/p>\n They are graduating into a weakening economy, fueled by trade policy uncertainty and an erosion in consumer sentiment. There\u2019s also the questions posed by artificial intelligence, as more companies experiment with using AI for tasks entry-level employees normally handle, such as customer support, code debugging, or legal document analysis. Add to all of that, the recent cuts in federal government jobs, once a reliable source of employment for newly minted college grads, and all indications are that this year\u2019s job market is more volatile.<\/p>\n But there are some hopeful indicators as well.<\/p>\n US employers have been adding jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employers added 177,000 jobs in April, and at 4.2 percent, the unemployment rate remained unchanged from March. Additionally, according to the National Association of Career Builders, a professional association for college career staffers, 89 percent of surveyed employers said they were planning to maintain or increase hiring levels for the 2024-2025 recruiting year.<\/p>\n One last reassurance? Job postings on Handshake, Boston University\u2019s online recruiting platform, dipped only 3 percent this spring compared to last spring.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of doomsday messaging out there, and it\u2019s so hard to understand what it all really means,\u201d says Colby Sims, BU Center for Career Development associate director for career communities and student engagement. \u201cBut the real message is that jobs are being added despite increasing political and economic concerns, and unemployment remains relatively unchanged.\u201d<\/p>\n