Being unskilled or unregistered in employment, education or training is among the most popular career options for Generation Z right now.
According to the International Labour OrganizationAbout one-fifth of people aged 15 to 24 worldwide in 2023 are currently not in employment, education or training.
In Spain alone, there are more than half a million young people between the ages of 15 and 24. I neither study nor work. Meanwhile in the UK, almost 3 million generation z Young people are now classified as economically inactive – with 384,000 young people joining the ‘unemployed’ category since the Covid pandemic.
But while some Gen Zers avoid the 9-to-5 job to protect their health or because adulthood milestones like buying a house seem so out of reach that they may not even try, a large segment of young people who are not working and not well educated are well qualified and want to work, but can’t get a job — and may never get one.
That’s at least, according to a recent report from Corn phrase What the report warns of is the “perfect storm” of AI and recession-proofing, coupled with a hoarding of talent, which is responsible for the new wave of “unemployment.”
‘Wait and see’ strategy blamed for youth unemployment
During the pandemic, companies paused hiring in preparation for a recession that ultimately never arrived.
“Some jobs have been merged, while others have been eliminated entirely,” the report says. For newcomers to the job market, this means there are fewer jobs to apply for – and that’s not going to change anytime soon.
Despite the slowdown in inflation, the report highlights that bosses are not bringing back those shortened roles because they are waiting to see how AI impacts their workloads.
“They’re reluctant to commit to full-time roles,” says Adam Prager, co-leader of Korn Ferry’s North America professional services practice, adding that employers expect AI to make their workers more efficient.
Essentially, companies are now clinging to the talent they have and expecting them to make do with less talent, rather than hiring new employees who they may have to let go later.
“Some of this is due to the fact that many companies are still remembering layoffs due to the pandemic, and are concerned about further damage to the brand,” the report adds.
Getting a job isn’t easy for Gen Z.
Generation Z students understand how tough the job market is right now – and those who do manage to land a job are having to resort to very unusual methods.
After hearing from more than 100 job applications, Ayala Osowski used the 20 hours she was already working a week at a pizza shop in suburban Washington to try to get hired by the D.C. elite.
“The market is so saturated with amazing talent that it takes some creativity to stand out from the crowd,” she said. luck.
The Gen Z graduate wore a baseball cap emblazoned with her university’s logo on the front every shift, and began giving an elevator speech every time a customer asked about her.
After a month of promoting herself while delivering pizza, Osowski landed her first internship and is now working at Cisco.
Similarly, after graduating in 2019 from the University of Bonn – one of Germany’s top universities – Basant Shenouda, who was born in Egypt, spent six months networking with recruiters and applying for jobs online.
When Shenouda realized that traditional job search methods were not working, she said, luck, She used LinkedIn to find out which conferences recruiters were posting about, then volunteered to work at those events, armed with a stack of resumes to show them during her break.
It worked out, and she landed an internship at LinkedIn, where she still works three years later.
Meanwhile, Luhani Santos, a 26-year-old with two college degrees from Brooklyn, rose to fame after she cried on TikTok because she was knocking on the doors of several local coffee shops with her resume and no one wanted to hire her.
The video paid off: Within days of posting it, Santos’s followers had tripled, and brand partnership opportunities were coming her way.
Following that, she said, luck“I feel like it’s just beginning for me.”
Are you a young graduate who can’t get a job or a recruiter who constantly has to turn down Gen Z candidates? Fortune wants to hear your story. Contact us at: Orianna.Royle@fortune.com