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Artificial intelligence is transforming the hiring process, leaving many college students and recent graduates searching for ways to stand out in an increasingly competitive job market . As employers adopt AI-powered screening tools , young job seekers say landing an interview can feel more challenging than ever.
Michela DiLorenzo, a student at Seton Hall and student editor at The Setonian who has covered the careers sentiment on campus , recently wrote that post-graduation plans for many of her peers have changed as they enter an uncertain job market. Rather than immediately pursuing graduate degrees, some are taking summer jobs or other work to save money as they consider their next steps.
"AI is really changing the motivation that students have going into the job market. It's changing the hiring process, how people are formatting their resumes and just overall, how students are approaching life post-grad," DiLorenzo said in an interview with CNBC's Jon Fortt on Friday.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, college graduates in the 22- to 27-year-old age bracket had an unemployment rate of 5.7% as of June 2026, significantly above the national average and a full percentage point higher than it was two years ago for their cohort. The unemployment rate for all young workers as of June was 7.2%. Meanwhile, the underemployment rate — college graduates working in jobs that do not require a bachelor's degree — has reached 42% for graduates of recent years, compared to 33.7% for all college graduates.
For students, the challenge is not only finding an opportunity but getting noticed. Employers are using AI to screen and review applications, while students are trying to figure out how to incorporate it into their job hunt.
Sixty-six percent of recruiters said at the beginning of 2026 that they were planning to increase their use of AI for pre-screening interviews, according to LinkedIn research , while 81% of job seekers said they had used or planned to use AI in their job search. That puts more of the earliest stages of the job search into automated systems.
There are also concerns that AI is eliminating jobs that are at the entry level of organizations, but the research remains preliminary in nature. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has found an overall slowdown in hiring in recent years, but not specifically concentrated in entry-level jobs with higher AI exposure.
Based on its study of job postings, the NY Fed wrote, "while AI may be contributing to recent labor market developments, it is not the main driver of the slowdown in hiring."
Its survey work with employers found that they "mostly intend to incorporate AI mainly via retraining , with limited effects on hiring."
Students are trying to understand how their materials may be evaluated before reaching a hiring manager. Students are tailoring resumes to specific job descriptions, emphasizing relevant skills and using language that aligns with the position.
Handshake, an early-career platform for students and job seekers which has worked with OpenAI on tools to increase student tech skills, says graduating seniors in 2026 mentioned AI skills on their resumes at twice the rate of the class of 2022. Its analysis found th…