The Z generation faces great challenges by entering the labour market, which is at its worst possible moment. Import level positions shrink due to AI; recruitments have been at the lowest level since 2020 and degrees no longer guarantee the coveted interview.
Most still seek a steady wage and health insurance
In front of this dead end, more and more young people are completely bypassing conventional growth, not always by choice but by necessity. The irony is that the same technology that closes them doors, opens others, As the AI tools allow them to do themselves what once required whole groups.
And while artificial intelligence seems to gradually eliminate introductory jobs, the traditional idea of career through the employee relationship is lost and together the dream of a good job, away from the risks of entrepreneurship. So there are not few representatives of the Z generation who decide to become CEOs directly... out of despair.
This phenomenon is not limited to the USA. In Europe, and especially in countries such as Greece where nominal wage increases fade from inflation and high taxation, the feeling that wage labour leads nowhere further to this trend.
The shock after studies
Ashley Terrell received her degree in Business Administration from the University of Hawaii in 2024 and planned to find a job in marketing or a technology company. However, after months of effort the only offer he received was to work in a well - known chain of building materials and tools. «It was really a shock.», says herself to Guardian.
Within the pressure of an uncertain economy and recent geopolitical developments, the generation Z appears the most pessimistic for her professional prospects. Import level positions are the most vulnerable in AI, resulting in many seeing their career blocked before it even started.
The unemployment rate for Americans aged 22 to 27 is now at the highest level after the pandemic. «The labour market has really been swamped and especially entry-level candidates are having a hard time right now», explains Daniel Zhao, chief economist of Glassdoor. As a result, many end up doing jobs they never imagined after four years of studies, such as retail or part - time. Even worse, some remain unemployed for months or years after graduation.
However, there are those who see the glass half full and decide to take a different approach: when there are no jobs, you create them yourself. This attitude was also adopted by Ashley, who had launched a YouTube channel as a student and decided to build on it by making videos for companies.
Initially, she sent direct messages to companies she liked by offering them content – sometimes free. Two years later, with a video portfolio on her assets, she took over a local distillery. On the route, he acquired more customers with whom he continues to work in branded content. «Nobody offered me anything like what I really wanted, so I just tried to see what I could do alone.» She says.
Searching for the solution
For a generation that wants more meaning, greater flexibility but also identification with its work, today's labour market has proved disappointing. This feeling is getting stronger because of the explosion of AI. Some, however, see that «Smart» models can help them start their own businesses, filling out skills that they do not even have and allowing them to carry out more things at the same time.
As Joseph Fuller, Harvard professor and Project on Workforce co-director notes, suddenly you have to figure out how to get from the first to the fourth step and one way is to build your own ladder...
Suhit Agarwal graduated from the University of Southern California in 2025, hoping to use his degree in Applied Mathematics to secure a job on Google. He applied more than six times for both internship and job, but never even reached an interview. Then he began using AI tools, including Claude Code, to assume greater responsibilities than he could manage alone.
The causes for the situation that has arisen are complex, including an uncertain political climate, an unstable global economy and emerging technological turbulence. «This applies particularly to recent graduates, because many of the admissions include significant amounts of routine cognitive work»Fuller says.
Recent report of Stanford University's Digital Economy Laboratory found «significant reduction» entry-level employment in areas exposed to AI, such as customer service, data registration and programming. The impact appears to be greater on so-called «knowledge workers», which are likely to have a university degree, according to the report.
Risks
The establishment of a company is not a panacea, as entrepreneurship is accompanied by significant economic risks. In addition, most startups do not receive funding and end up in failure and disappointment of their founders.
Even successful ventures require the founders to live in a simple way for many years. Instead of working 9 to 5, many are alert 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In an uncertain market, however, young people say it offers a special advantage, that of feeling control. But is that enough for how long?
«For our parents or grandparents, work was the prize, because if you had a good job, you could buy a house, have a good car, go on vacation. People weren't fired by accident or taken over by AI.», says Sola West, who now has her own consulting company. «Now there is no guaranteed result with no work and working for yourself at least gives you some control over your fate.», adds.
The idea of stability still attracts, however. Ashley Terrell did not stop looking for full employment because she would want a fixed salary and health insurance provided by the employer. Z generation workers are the fact that they navigate to a changing economy and their choices could be a guide to how everyone else should adapt soon.
In an opinion article in the New York Times, Anıs Raman, a senior member of LinkedIn, notes that the resolution of the labour import crisis is «the first step to correct the entire task»And sooner or later, he completes, all our jobs are going to face the same wave of change.
