Why Can't New Grads Find Jobs?

Why can't new grads find jobs? Everyone blames AI. Tab did too, until he followed the evidence. November 2026: Tab's first student loan bill arrives right on time. His first paycheck doesn't. To find out who took his first job, we go back to the day he signed the deal in 2022 and follow the clues: the chatbot that interviewed him, the bosses who said they'd stop hiring, the warning that half of entry-level office jobs could vanish, and the researchers who checked. The answer surprised Tab, and it's not the robot alone. 0:00 The bill that came first 0:33 The deal 1:34 Two things Tab ignored 2:07 The first suspect 3:00 Half the jobs, gone 3:42 The clock starts 4:41 The job is gone 5:09 The evidence 5:50 The confrontation 7:14 Who really did it 7:50 What a late start costs 8:15 The first step Sources (every number and quote in the video): • Grace period of "generally six months", and repaying "even if I … am unable to find employment after I graduate": Direct Loan Exit Counseling Guide, Federal Student Aid https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/... • About $30,000 ($29,560) average debt for 2023–24 bachelor's grads who borrowed: College Board, Trends in Student Aid 2025 https://research.collegeboard.org/tre... • The Federal Reserve raised rates seven times in 2022: https://www.federalreserve.gov/moneta... • ChatGPT launched Nov 30 2022: OpenAI https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/ • Salesforce CEO: no new software engineers in 2025, AI made engineers 30%+ more productive (his own estimate): The Register, Feb 27 2025 https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/2... • Shopify CEO memo, "Before asking for more headcount and resources…": TechCrunch, Apr 7 2025 https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/07/sho... • Big Tech new-grad hiring down more than half vs 2019, and "the bigger driver may be the end of the 'free money madness'…": SignalFire State of Tech Talent 2025 https://www.signalfire.com/blog/signa... • "AI could wipe out half of entry-level office jobs within five years" (a warning, not a fact): Anthropic CEO to Axios, May 28 2025 https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/ai-j... • Recent grads more likely to be out of work than all workers since 2021; about 4 in 10 work jobs that don't need a degree: NY Fed, Labor Market for Recent College Graduates https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/c... • Almost a fifth fewer young workers (22–25) in AI-exposed jobs, "early, descriptive indicators", trends "predating generative AI": Stanford Digital Economy Lab, "Canaries in the Coal Mine?" (rev. Aug 2026) https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/p... • Fed chair on young people "having a hard time finding jobs" and AI "not the main thing driving it": Federal Reserve press conference transcript, Sep 17 2025 https://www.federalreserve.gov/mediac... • No clear evidence of AI labor-market disruption, "these findings may change": Yale Budget Lab https://budgetlab.yale.edu/sites/defa... • Graduates who start in bad job markets earn about 9% less at first, gone after about 10 years; the least advantaged lose most; catching up by moving to better employers: NBER Digest, Nov 2006 https://www.nber.org/digest/nov06/car... • Employers plan 5.6% more Class of 2026 hires (a plan, not a promise): NACE, Apr 15 2026 https://naceweb.org/talent-acquisitio... Tab, Marge, Grandma, the Office Chatbot Robot and Brightloop are made up; Tab's story is an illustration built on the real events and research above. This video is education and commentary, not financial or career advice. Narration is an AI voice; illustrations and a few short animations are AI-generated and edited by hand. Music and sound effects: Epidemic Sound.