New college graduates are facing one of the most challenging markets for entry-level jobs in a decade.

In June, the most recent data available, the unemployment rate for recent grads was nearly 5%.

That's higher than the overall unemployment rate.

We asked recent graduates to tell us about their job searches.

My hope after graduating college was to go straight into a full-time job in reporting.

My initial plans were to find a local job in a magazine.

I just wanted to find a job where I could write.

I had aspirations of working for the GSA, General Services Administration.

I was going into a third round interview with them around November, December, and that is

when the federal hiring freeze took over.

I would often be what I would consider ghosted by employers.

Wouldn't get any feedback at all, not even a rejection,

just nothing. I must have started applying for jobs in April and I've know I've sent 85 job

applications since. It's been really difficult. When I wasn't getting any feedback from my

applications was really dejected.

It made me feel like I was unqualified for any job in journalism.

Like maybe I wasn't good enough.

The experience has definitely been discouraging, but I don't know, I'd like to take the mindset of I just got to keep plugging away, keep sending in applications, keep trying to revamp my resume.

I think I'm a little too stubborn to switch career pass right now. So I, you know, I'm going to keep, keep at it, keep applying.

And we'll just hope for the best, I suppose.

Christine Cruz Vergara is the chief education officer at Handshake, which is an online platform

that connects young job seekers and employers. Christine, we just heard from three young people

...