Dive Brief:
- Hiring managers in the U.S. are betting on artificial intelligence over new graduates, with 48% saying they would rather invest in AI tools than hire and train a recent college graduate, according to a Friday report from ResumeTemplates.com.
- The job market does still have space for 2026 graduates, and 65% of hiring managers said they planned to hire the same number or more this year compared to last year, per the report. However, 23% said they expected to hire fewer 2026 grads this year or none at all, and 12% didn’t know how many they would hire.
- Most hiring concerns centered around workplace skills rather than credentials. Nearly 70% of hiring managers said they had “at least one character concern about recent grads,” including 33% who cited “a lack of work ethic.” Another 76% said recent grads required assistance understanding basic documents such as memos, contracts and budgets.
Dive Insight:
The bar is set higher for 2026 college graduates, who now have to compete not only against each other but against steep expectations and the encroaching influence of AI. The survey of 1,000 U.S. hiring managers at companies with 101 or more employees found that while entry-level pay is holding steady, hiring managers have become more particular.
Many hiring managers are giving entry-level tasks over to AI, and some companies are “holding back opportunities until grads prove they can do the basics,” per the report. More than three-fifths (61%) of hiring managers surveyed said they would only consider employing a graduate with no internship for certain roles or not at all. Meanwhile, 41% said recent grads don’t know how to write a professional email, and 40% said grads didn’t have the skill set needed to analyze or interpret data. Only 17% said they completely trusted new grads to represent the company in front of customers.
At the same time, there’s less money available to hire entry-level employees. More than half of companies (55%) have moved at least some of their entry-level hiring budget over to AI, while 30% said AI “reduced their need for grad hires.”
The lack of early-career employees means existing workers have to take on more duties, with 45% of organizations now asking one senior worker plus AI to do the work of several entry-level grads, per the report. At 20% of those companies, this means senior workers are covering three or more roles.
Nonetheless, a recent joint study from Cognizant and Pearson found that 94% of HR leaders believe AI will lead to the creation of new entry-level jobs within the next five years, and 96% said entry-level roles will eventually turn into positions involving AI management or supervision.
