it’s not you, it’s the job market

Grownkid

Grownkid & Joy Coalition

Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture

4.8 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

it’s no secret that everyone is applying for jobs but nobody’s hearing back… even the job market is ghosting us. in this episode, we get into the current school-to-work crisis, how our friends are dealing with it, and how we’ve been navigating it ourselves—kayla recently graduating debt-free from USC (thank you financial aid) and gael dropping out to take an entrepreneurial route. but whether you went to college or not, the result is the same: unemployment. is this a normal experience, is it just us, or is the job marketplace broken as a whole? so next time your unemployed friend asks you to hang out on a tuesday at 2pm, have some sympathy and maybe say yes, cause everybody's going through it. Resources available: - The Better Marketplace (https://www.brokenmarketplace.org/better-marketplace) - Highlights research to explore why the pathways from school to career are broken, leaving students and job seekers unprepared and unsupported. Explores some of the ways the system can change. - Braven (https://braven.org/) - Braven’s mission is to empower college students by equipping them with skills, networks, experiences, and confidence to secure strong first jobs. - SkillUp (https://explore.skillup.org/) - Reviews and only shows career paths that don't require degrees and that can be trained for in less than 12 months for free or at an affordable cost. - Basta (https://www.projectbasta.com/) - Partners with universities, colleges, and youth-serving nonprofits to strengthen career guidance for first-gen students. follow us: @grownkld @gaelaitor @_kaylasuarez join our social club: https://form.typeform.com/to/eBSho4lE overshare with us: grownkid.com About our Partners: GrownKid is made in partnership with Joy Coalition where purpose driven content meets powerful storytelling. From 13 Reasons Why to Unprisoned, Joy Coalition projects are made to bridge generations and drive groundbreaking conversations. This episode is sponsored by the Schultz Family Foundation, whose mission is to create greater opportunity accessible to all. The Foundation supports young adults across the country, whether that’s building stronger career pathways, or investing in AI tools that make the job search more accessible and transparent - ensuring everyone gets a fair shot at success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey people, welcome back to Grown Kid. I'm Gail. And I'm Kayla. And welcome back to another episode.
0:20.2	It's been a couple of months. For those that have been keeping up with the podcast, it's been a couple months since Kayla has graduated and really like our class of the people that have gone to college have graduated.
0:31.6	As you all know, like I didn't go to college.
0:33.6	So it's kind of been interesting to see what everyone is up to now, given like we graduated
0:39.2	or you graduated in a.
0:40.3	Yes, I do graduate in May.
0:42.4	I'm feeling very happy and glad about it.
0:46.4	But I think I also have a different experience than my other post-grad students.
0:52.5	And so, yeah, it's been a little bit difficult for my friends in hearing
0:56.8	their perspectives and stories about trying to find a job. But yeah, it's rough. It's rough for
1:02.4	everyone right now. And just to give some background, I graduated from USC. And hey, you know,
1:07.7	even USC post-grad students are having trouble finding a job. So it looks like, you know, the school you went to, sure, it can play a role in it. But I think we're all in the- Running out, it really doesn't matter. Yeah, that's why the title of this. Yeah, everybody right now is just going through a college or no college. So it's an interesting time right now.
1:30.5	It's not you, just the job market is truly broken.
1:33.3	Like, it really is that, which is what inspired this episode.
1:42.4	Because there's so many statistics that really just showcase the fact that the job market is so bad right now, whether you have a degree or you don't. So I wanted to do an episode kind of talking about what people are going through and hopefully make you feel a little less crazy if you don't have a job and you've been applying like to so many hundreds and hundreds and you just don't get an interview like six round process only to get rejected. And I want to start off with like some statistics to kind of just frame the whole the whole thing.
2:01.1	So you really get a chance to see how bad it is.
2:03.1	Like I have sounded like a broken record because I keep repeating this to all my friends because I think like as we'll get into it.
2:09.1	But like the discussion we've been having are really like this data does reflect the day to day.
2:13.8	Because like, okay, for one, young male college grads are now jobless as the same rate as non-grads
2:20.1	so basically the unemployment rate among u.s men and women age 22 to 27 by education level
2:27.0	is the same so whether you have a degree or whether you don't have a degree you are unemployed at the same
2:34.0	percentage which i think is just i mean one that's just insane because you know you're probably you have a degree or whether you don't have a degree, you are unemployed at the same percentage,
	...

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