As the weather turns warmer and spring settles in around the country, tens of thousands of college seniors look forward to the day they’ll walk across the stage, grasp their hard-earned diplomas, and start the life they’ve been thinking about for years. That life includes the expectation of a good-paying job with benefits, an affordable home, and one day starting a family.

Unfortunately, many college graduates find out rather quickly that the life they’ve imagined isn’t attainable.

As Hugh Cameron writes at Newsweek, “Freshly minted graduates are increasingly walking out of commencement ceremonies and into a labor market that seems defined less by opportunity, and more so by the obligation of endless applications and interviews with little promise of a payoff.”

Today, the people flipping burgers, serving up lattes, or driving Ubers are more likely than ever to hold a college degree. Anyone who works hard for a living deserves respect, but it’s not what these graduates expected. Imagine leaving college thinking that all those late nights cramming for exams and earning credits ended up in a job paying $17 per hour for work that’s not remotely related to your degree. Then imagine driving home and worrying about how you’re going to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt.

There’s often a transition between graduation day and starting a new career, and low-paying service jobs are a good way to pay the bills until the right offer comes along. But more often than not, these low-wage jobs turn into years of waiting as graduates find the job market tougher than expected.

According to The Washington Times, “More than 90% of lifeguards, bartenders, cashiers and postal workers have college degrees, according to a report that finds too many graduates chasing too few jobs that require their advanced level of education.”

“The analysis found that college graduates fill 68% to 95% of service jobs paying $29,000 to $40,000 a year,” adds the Times. “Those roles require, at best, a high school education and no prior experience. That includes more than 9 in 10 telemarketers, shampooers, movie projectionists, restaurant hostesses, physical therapist aides, and amusement park attendants.”

There are many contributing factors to the problem, including college graduates whose degrees aren’t worth the parchment they’re printed on. Colleges have marketed specialized degrees to fill classrooms, knowing all along that many graduates won’t be able to pay back their loans. They take advantage of young people who don’t have it all figured out yet and who aren’t really sure why they’re in college in the first place. A degree in gender studies or wildlife psychology might be appealing in the moment, but students need to consider whether they’ll be able to build a steady career in such fields. That’s increasingly true of more traditional fields.

There’s also a lack of awareness of changing trends, including that many employers are now paying for training, thereby negating the need to go to college in the first place, and that new technologies are replacing workers in some fields.

In fact, artificial intelligence is often cited as one of the main factors keeping graduates looking for work.

“Growing AI adoption has slowed the hiring of young workers in software development and customer service jobs,” Computerworld reports, “and recent data suggests it could also be exerting pressure on entry-level wages, according to industry experts.”

But AI isn’t the only reason.

“A possible contributing factor is that the labor market’s cool-down in the past few years has been concentrated in industries that generally attract young graduates, including technology, media, accounting, and consulting,” according to to The New York Times. “More people are also graduating with college degrees, heightening the competition for entry-level white-collar jobs.”

This has impacted unemployment rates.

Newsweek’s Cameron points out, “According to data released in early August by the New York Federal Reserve, the unemployment rate for recent graduates during the second quarter of 2025 has averaged to be 5.3 percent. The figure compares to only 4 percent for the wider labor force, a departure from historic trends that, barring COVID-19, marks 2025 as one of the toughest job markets for the post-college crowd in a decade.”

Making the market tougher for entry-level workers are unions pushing for higher minimum wage laws in some states, which have hurt the very people they claim to be helping. Progressive politicians, too, are glad to jump on the bandwagon. After all, they gladly join unions by pandering to hourly workers and getting more tax revenue. Workers themselves soon find that a higher minimum wage is a cost many businesses can’t afford.

“Researchers found that California’s minimum wage hike for fast-food workers led to ‘negative outcomes’ such as automation and reduced work hours,” reports Fox News. “The researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, suggested in a report published in March that the policy could produce unintended consequences such as an increase in menu prices, a loss of overtime and benefits, reductions in employee working hours, and an implementation of automation that replaces workers.”

Data show that college graduates are still more likely to find a job and earn higher wages than young people who don’t go to college, but it’s not a panacea. It’ll be interesting to see how trends change in the coming years, influenced by emerging technologies and artificial intelligence, as well as a market flooded with college graduates.

In the end, college remains a great option for many, but it’s not the only path to achieving the American Dream.