A recent headline is raising questions about the youngest workers in the labor force, Gen Z.

Some employers say they're hiring Gen Z employees only to let them go within months, citing gaps in communication, professionalism, and workplace readiness.

But this kind of criticism isn't exactly new.

Previous generations face similar labels when they first entered the workforce, even as the

nature of work itself was shifting.

So what's really going on here?

Is this a Gen Z problem or a workplace problem?

Hello and welcome to USA Today is The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, May 6,

2026. Here to dig into Gen Z and how they can be successful in the labor force in the age of AI.

Is Susie Welch, a professor at NYU's Stern School of Business.

So good to speak with you, Susie.

It's for having me.

The unemployment rate for recent college grads, for the latest data released by the Federal

Reserve of New York, at the end of 2025 is 5.7%. That's roughly a point and a half higher

than it is for other age cohorts. Why do you think that is? Well, it's a influence of events.

I was with a student who came to my office the other day. She's got a degree in computer science.

She's very good at math. And she cannot find a job. And she was in such a state of despair. I just want to put a human face to these numbers. And she was a very talented young woman. And I said to her, I think you're going to have to open your aperture about the jobs that you're looking at. And she was looking for what the conveyor belt would typically dump her at. You know, there's a conveyor belt when you've got a certain degree, and the conveyor bolts went to certain jobs. And there's just, there's softness in those jobs as employers are reluctant to hire thinking that AI might be able to do these entry-level jobs, so they're moving more slowly. And then they have been a bit burned by their Gen Z hires, as we know. And so I think that there's a lot of

the structural reasons and there's very modern reasons about what's going on. I want to turn now to

Gen Z's ability to keep jobs once they've been hired. A recent survey by Intelligent.com

that made headlines says that six in ten employers say they're letting Gen Z hires go within

months. What does that stat actually tell us and what's missing from it? I think that stat tells

us the truth, what's going on. And I have an interesting perspective on it, perhaps, which is

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