Emanuel Barcenas seems like he’s falling behind. At 25, he’d wish to be residing in his personal place, saving cash for the long run and making sufficient cash to take a date out to dinner.
As an alternative, two years after he graduated with a pc science bachelor’s diploma from the Illinois Institute of Expertise, he’s unemployed and residing along with his dad and mom within the suburbs of Chicago. Regardless of having utilized to greater than 900 jobs — from secretary positions to a task at a jail — he has gotten solely a handful of interviews.
“I need to be an grownup,” he stated. “I have to lock in, I would like to maneuver ahead, however proper now, I’m simply stunted. I’m making an attempt my greatest, however I suppose my greatest isn’t adequate.”
Barcenas has discovered himself in a job market with fewer locations for younger males, in line with economists and up to date labor market knowledge. Amid a wider slowdown in hiring, the unemployment charge for males ages 23 to 30 with bachelor’s levels has jumped in current months to six% — in contrast with 3.5% for younger ladies with the identical stage of training, in line with knowledge analyzed by NBC Information.
Now, younger males with bachelor’s levels are barely likelier to be unemployed than younger males with simply highschool diplomas, the evaluation discovered. That’s a current reversal after a long time when younger males with bachelor’s levels had a bonus within the labor market, economists stated. Younger ladies haven’t skilled the identical development; they’re nonetheless considerably likelier to be employed if they’ve bachelor’s levels.
The shift in employment prospects for males in contrast with ladies is tied partly to the altering dynamics of the labor market, during which a lot of the job development has been pushed by hiring within the well being care and social companies business — during which almost 80% of employees are feminine, in line with knowledge from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Primarily 100% of the labor drive development over current months, possibly even a few years, has been coming from the well being care business, and that business is overwhelmingly feminine,” stated Emerson Sprick, director of retirement and labor coverage on the Bipartisan Coverage Heart, a nonprofit that brings collectively Democratic and Republican policymakers. “Whereas on the similar time, you’ve seen these historically male blue-collar jobs in manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, mining — these have been down or flat. In order that’s creating much more difficulties for males.”
Tech is among the many historically male-dominated fields which have been hit notably onerous by layoffs lately. Round 132,000 tech business employees have been laid off in 2025, on prime of 238,000 in 2024, in line with a tally from the tech job web site TrueUp. On the similar time, laptop science-related tracks have been among the many prime majors for males graduating with bachelor’s levels lately, including to the availability of employees amid shrinking demand from employers.
Barcenas did briefly get a full-time job along with his laptop science diploma working as an engineer on brake techniques for the auto firm Stellantis. He moved to Michigan for the job final summer time. But it surely ended after 4 months when his complete division was laid off. Within the 12 months since then, his solely earnings has come from driving for Uber and doing a little video enhancing initiatives on the aspect.
“I don’t have a steady base proper now. It’s very rocky, and I’m unsure if I’ll make it, if the muse shall be adequate sooner or later or if it’s going to topple over,” he stated.
Throughout the economic system, hiring by employers has been slowing, making it notably difficult for youthful employees making an attempt to get their foot within the job market. The economic system added simply 73,000 jobs in July and fewer jobs than beforehand forecast in Might and June, in line with the month-to-month jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In manufacturing, a historically male-dominated business, 11,000 jobs had been misplaced final month.
President Donald Trump claimed this month that these numbers had been “rigged” to make him look dangerous and fired the pinnacle of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“The Financial system is BOOMING below ‘TRUMP,’” he posted on Fact Social in saying the firing.
However a booming economic system isn’t what a few of these on the entrance traces of looking for work have been experiencing.
“Each man I do know that’s with no job proper now needs to work, however they simply can’t get it,” stated Eli McCullick, who has been on the lookout for a job for greater than a 12 months after he graduated with a level in sociology from the College of Colorado Boulder. “It’s demoralizing for guys who actually need to get forward and it’s simply not occurring.”
McCullick, 23, stated he hasn’t even been in a position to get an hourly job at a restaurant or doing cleansing work at a lodge within the Boulder space, the place he’s residing at a property his father owns. The one means he has been in a position to earn cash to cowl his meals and each day bills has been to do odd jobs for associates and family members, like shoveling horse manure, mowing lawns and serving to an older lady put together for a yard sale.
After greater than a 12 months of on the lookout for work, McCullick determined to pivot to regulation college, which he hopes to start out subsequent 12 months, and he was ready to make use of his private connections to get a paid internship at a regulation agency this fall.
The battle to seek out work has shifted his political opinions. He stated he voted for Trump final 12 months in hopes {that a} second Trump presidency would enhance the economic system and his possibilities of getting a job. Trump elevated his help amongst youthful males within the 2024 election, successful the vote amongst males below 30 by 1 proportion level over Democrat Kamala Harris, in line with exit polls.
However McCullick stated he now regrets that vote and fears Trump’s insurance policies round tariffs will increase costs and create financial uncertainty that slows hiring. He stated he opposes the current tax minimize and spending invoice handed in Congress, calling it “completely antithetical to the concept of serving to People” due to its cuts to meals help and medical health insurance for lower-income households.
“I voted for him, however I’ll inform you what, it wasn’t due to immigration, it wasn’t due to overseas coverage; it was as a result of I purchased the massive lie about prosperity and financial development,” McCullick stated. “This was in ’24 after I was struggling to get a job, and I actually hoped that will make it higher. However every little thing he’s executed since has executed the precise reverse. So I really feel disaffected, not solely within the job market narrowly, however politically usually.”
Outcomes from an NBC Information Keep Tuned Ballot, powered by SurveyMonkey, in April discovered 45% of younger males permitted of Trump’s job efficiency, whereas solely 24% of younger ladies did. The approval amongst younger males was just like that among the many total inhabitants, although decrease than amongst males in older age teams.
White Home spokesman Kush Desai stated the administration goals to spice up the economic system by decreasing laws, reducing taxes and dealing on commerce offers to extend American exports.
“President Trump’s America First insurance policies unleashed historic job, wage, and funding development in his first time period, and this similar coverage combine — at an excellent larger scale — is about to ship once more in President Trump’s second time period,” Desai stated.
The White Home, citing knowledge from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, pointed to declines in unemployment since Trump took workplace for males of all ages with no school diploma and for males ages 20 to 24 no matter training. (NBC Information’ evaluation checked out a distinct group: males ages 23 to 30 with a bachelor’s diploma and people with a highschool diploma.)
For many years, males’s employment prospects have been deteriorating whereas ladies’s have been on the rise. Because the Nineteen Nineties, a larger share of ladies than males have been incomes bachelor’s levels, with almost half of ladies ages 25 to 34 holding bachelor’s levels as of final 12 months, in contrast with simply over a 3rd of males, in line with knowledge from the Pew Analysis Heart.
Younger males are likelier to be financially depending on their dad and mom in contrast with younger ladies, with 74% of ladies describing themselves as largely financially impartial, in contrast with 62% of younger males, in line with a separate Pew survey launched final 12 months.
Whereas males are nonetheless likelier to be within the workforce than ladies, males’s participation — the proportion of males working or on the lookout for work — has been declining for many years. Now, round 68% of all males are thought of to be a part of the labor drive, down from 69% earlier than the pandemic and 73% earlier than the Nice Recession.
Most males who aren’t working or on the lookout for work stated in a survey that it was due to private well being points — probably the results of males’s having extra bodily demanding jobs — whereas ladies’s prime cause was caring for kids, in line with Sprick, of the Bipartisan Coverage Heart.
“It’s not a good time for younger males to be not doing nice within the labor market,” stated Richard Reeves, founder and president of the American Institute for Boys and Males, which researches and advocates for males’s well-being. “We’ve already had these long-term developments in larger training and earnings and geographical mobility which might be already fairly troubling.”
Sean Breen, who graduated this spring with a communications diploma from California State College, Lengthy Seaside, stated he and almost all of his highschool associates, each women and men, are again residence residing with their dad and mom and unemployed. He stated even those that went to top-ranked schools and acquired seemingly in-demand levels are unable to seek out work.
“It is sort of a highschool reunion,” Breen stated. “We’re all, we’re again in Marin County this summer time, all unemployed, all looking for a barista job, a part-time one thing, as a result of we haven’t discovered something.”
After having utilized to lots of of jobs, he stated, Breen now plans to go to graduate college within the fall at Trinity School in Eire, the place tuition is considerably decrease and, he hopes, jobs shall be extra plentiful.
“I don’t need a pity social gathering, nevertheless it was so attention-grabbing to be in my place and have a look at all my different friends, as effectively, and be like, what occurred?” Breen stated. “It didn’t actually matter what college or diploma — it’s simply the present job market.”
The struggles fluctuate by business, and Reeves stated he would really like extra applications to encourage males to enter well being care and break down the gender stereotypes round sure profession paths — just like efforts to encourage ladies to enter development.
“If well being and social care actually are the place plenty of jobs are coming from and males aren’t in them, we want comparable coverage responses,” Reeves stated.
Barcenas, who graduated with a pc science diploma, stated he’s open to different fields however would like to place this training to make use of. He worries about pivoting to a different profession during which he might in the end be confronted with the identical uncertainty. For now, he doesn’t know what the long run holds.
“It does mess with me. I get very anxious,” he stated. “Is that this the way it’s going to be after I’m 26, after I’m 27, after I’m 28?”
