A New Career-Prep Playbook
The threat of a collapsing entry-level job market is an opportunity for higher ed
What’s the purpose of college?
It’s a question that has served as a long-standing debate within the academy and more broadly across public opinion. In recent years, the debate has gained renewed fervor amid growing political polarization and questions about the return on investment of a degree. Americans value higher education for multiple reasons ranging from engaged citizenship and critical thinking to economic mobility. But chief among the reasons—and by a sizable margin compared to the rest—is to secure a good job. Indeed, in a 2023 Gates Foundation survey, 81 percent of high schoolers said their reason for wanting a college degree was to make more money and to be able to get a better job or promotion.
In terms of the purpose of college, there is not a single right answer. Rather, an opportunity exists for those of us in higher education to embrace the multiple reasons students enroll in our institutions while we also prioritize one of the top motivators for earning a degree. We can aim to produce engaged citizens who think critically and who are gainfully employed. Amid this embrace of mutually reinforcing aims, we must operate with economic mobility and job outcomes as one of our top, unabashed priorities. We need to craft a powerful narrative that motivates faculty (at the center of student talent development) and employers (the holders of the ultimate outcome for students) alike.
We have a clear and distressing motivator for such a goal: the potential collapse of the entry-level job, internship, and early-career pipeline. Today, the youth labor force participation rate is at one of its lowest points since the 1940s, the gap between internship demand and supply measures in the millions, artificial intelligence is disrupting entry-level jobs, and, to top it off, rampant grade inflation is preventing graduates from differentiating themselves from other job applicants. Here, we look at the present situation and what we can do to prepare students to succeed in the changing job market.
Download a pdf of the full spring 2026 Research Corner.
Illustrations by Eva Bee