After caps are thrown and diplomas are handed out, college graduates will need to do one more thing before entering the workforce: take off their rose-colored glasses.
Rising graduates expect a starting salary of approximately $100,000, according to a recent study from ZipRecruiter, which surveyed around 3,000 young people in the U.S. But their annual take-home pay right out of undergrad ends up being closer to $68,000. About 42% of recent graduates reported that they couldn’t secure the pay they wanted, while 31% were able to negotiate for a higher salary than the one initially offered. And only 18% of new workers say their starting salary exceeded their expectations.
“Navigating the transition from campus to career can be a challenge for new grads, especially given the unpredictable market this class is stepping into,” Ian Siegel, ZipRecruiter cofounder and CEO, wrote in the report.
Every job market can seem tough to a first-time job seeker, but job seekers have been vocal over the past year about how tough the search really is. About 20% of those looking for work have been on the hunt for at least 10 to 12 months or longer, according to a Career Group report from earlier in the year. And the current economic environment for the class of 2025 is undeniably volatile, with tariffs having potentially significant economic ramifications, including hiring freezes or layoffs.
“The labor market has been mostly paralyzed, mostly frozen,” Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed’s Hiring Lab, recently told Fortune. “It’s been a continued story of, What policies are going to happen from day to day? So I don’t think that this gives businesses a ton more certainty that they need to start going on a hiring spree.”
But all hope is not lost for new grads, and there are still ways to get ahead. The report notes that the most useful skills in navigating today’s job market are “preparation, flexibility, and perspective.”
“The grads who come out ahead are those who start their search early, stay open to different paths, and keep at it,” writes Siegel, “even if things don’t go exactly as planned.”
