Why Are Recent Grads Underprepared for the Workplace, and How to Reverse the Crisis?

America needs its college graduates ready for the real world.

Anecdotes, official surveys, media investigations, and employer interviews increasingly highlight a serious problem both for America's present and her future—namely, that recent grads are not prepared for the workforce. Why is that, and how can Americans change the trend?

This is especially important as one in three employers is replacing some entry-level jobs with artificial intelligence (AI), according to the 2026 report from the Graduate Management Admission Council. Now, it is quite literally impossible for AI to take over jobs in every business and become a part of every worker's life as utopians propose because America absolutely does not and will not any time soon have the electricity capacity for such a switch. But part of the issue is that human employees have become so unreliable, incompetent, and homogenized that even AI, with all its many flaws, seems a better option for employers who can use it. 

Humans will beat AI in many jobs if they're skilled and original thinkers. Unfortunately, America's education system currently is the worst place to learn useful skills and to exercise original thought. It seems obvious, therefore, that we have to discuss educational reform—and parenting—if we're to find a solution to the workplace issues.

I am a member of Gen Z myself. Over the past five years since graduating college, I've had many conversations with friends about their search for jobs and workplace experiences. What's clear is there is not a one-size-fits-all for all Gen Z college grads. Several of my friends are among the hardest workers I have ever known, and exercise scrupulous integrity in the workplace. But I have also noticed some of the problematic trends that cause older employers, teachers, and supervisors to complain about my generation. 

Not all of it is our fault—to some extent older generations who complain about our poor work habits are responsible for the low performance, excessive indulgence, unrealistic job goals, inefficiency, and tech device obsession that make much of Gen Z frustrating for employers. 

On the other hand, young workers too often refuse to acknowledge they have a lot to learn. They must accept less-than-ideal circumstances comes with the first rung of the career ladder. 

There's fault on both sides. Some sort of major cultural and educational reform is obviously in order. So what created this crisis, and how can America begin to address the crisis and solve it?

It begins in the home, which means that every American has some role to play. Most (though not all) of the young workers I know with high integrity and an intense work ethic grew up in religious homes with married parents, high expectations, and inculcated respect for seniors. Children who grow up without an engaged dad in the home are much more likely to get into drugs, crime, gun violence, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies at a young age. They are also more likely to remain in poverty and suffer depression. 

These phenomena in turn impact the job hiring pool. U.S. Census Bureau data from 2025 indicates that one in four American kids are in fatherless homes. Those are the employees of the future. And even married, religious, conservative parents too often follow the modern trend of allowing their children to behave without any manners, respect, or self-denial in public and in private. 

Are we really surprised that the kids who run around church or the mall screaming—or the teens who sit at family reunions watching TikTok—eventually provide poor customer service, show up late, and disrespect their bosses when they take jobs? America's workplace crisis is partly a parenting crisis. Poorly raised, over-indulged children are more likely to be lousy employees.

Failing In the Schools

There's an educational crisis also fueling the young employee crisis. Economist Gad Levanon told CNBC last year that a bachelor's degree is no longer reliably valuable for getting a job. Part of the reason for this is that many professions that never used to need a degree now do (journalism, elementary school teacher, etc.) and that countless degrees should never have been university-level majors (e.g., puppetry, social media management, kindergarten education) or should never have existed at all (e.g., gender studies, social justice, victim studies). 

Who in his right mind would hire a sexuality studies major? 

Plus, as college standards drop like rocks and majors proliferate into dozens of meaningless categories, more young people have college degrees. As of 2023, over six in 10 high school graduates enrolled in college by the end of the year. Not all of them will graduate, of course, but that gives perspective on why college grads don't always find their degrees are valuable in hiring scenarios. If we had higher enrollment in trade schools or encouraged kids to see manual labor as admirable, maybe we wouldn't have such a glut of college grads facing a tough job market with few to no skills to tempt employers. 

The medical school graduates and licensed plumbers will find jobs. The Queer Caribbean Studies grads won't. 

And sometimes even the high-level majors are unprepared for real life. A recent grad from an engineering college told me his valedictorian's speech was centered around the silly claim, "Adults are just kids with bigger backpacks." Part of that issue is that AI is allowing some students to cheat their way to grades and degrees they never earned. But kids who cheat in school are also less likely to be reliable employees.

I spoke with two teachers about how the K-12 education system is failing to prepare youth for the workforce. Mary Alicia (a pseudonym for privacy purposes) teaches at a public charter school in Texas. Rachel teaches at a private school in Virginia. They both discussed how schools are failing and how they can reform to boost students' success.

"Ultimately, schools refuse to hold students accountable," Mary Alicia reflected. "The education biz is just that—a business. Education used to be the great American equalizer. Today, the difference between public school America—the masses of Americans—and the few private school elites is accountability. 

"There is no possible way for a public school kid to fail anything anymore. Public schools won't let teachers grade a kid below a 50 percent. Public schools require teachers to offer redos on any assignment at any time for any reason. Public schools require teachers to differentiate individually for their 13 SPED scholars while maintaining more rigorous instruction for all other scholars and higher-level instruction for advanced scholars. Public schools can require that teachers verify parents have received AND read all school communications."

And if the results are not what they imagined, then "administrators will still alter grade books, will still pass failed scholars along, will still graduate 18-year-olds who read at a 5th grade level." This is the reality across America, Mary Alicia emphasized. 

"It teaches impressionable kids that they should never have to deal with anything difficult or challenging. It allows children to play the victim, to shift blame, to give up. It teaches kids that there are no consequences for anything, that learning and thinking are secondary to monetary benefits and that cheating and lying are acceptable."

Rachel, who teaches both freshmen and seniors in high school, observes that fewer and fewer students can "explain, apply, or even retain what they have learned," and their "soft skills" decline in "an environment of trained helplessness." 

"I cannot count how many times students have complained that I 'expect them to think' . . . I have also had students complain about the expectation to retain information in the long term and draw connections from various points in the course, as well as cross-curricular information." 

Their parents and past teachers have allowed these students to see challenges as unfair impositions.

Rachel sees "a constant lowering of expectations to meet the lowest common denominator rather than teaching students to rise to the expectation." Deadlines become meaningless through endless extensions and withheld penalties. One student staggeringly asserted to Rachel that "there are no late penalties in the real world." He's in for a rude awakening the first time he completes a task late at his job. 

Another potential issue for future employees is the fact that students "as a collective are terrible at reading and following directions." No matter how detailed her instructions, it's never enough. 

These students' "critical thinking skills and ability to apply precedent to current situations is [also] very concerning." Rachel and her colleagues frequently observe astonished students ask why they must bring their own pencils to class. They cannot even follow basic instructions. 

"The biggest suggestion I would give to help prepare students is to consistently set the standard of self-reliance," Rachel said. She believes teachers sometimes go overboard in assisting kids who then don't grow, because "adversity can be very good for them." Instead of removing strict deadlines for assignments because kids get "anxious," teachers should be "teaching them skills to help them prepare for the deadline and giving them the learning opportunity that the situation is not as bad as they built it up to be." Even failure can be educational, and critiques can hurt feelings but help develop character. Students need clear expectations and training in critical thinking, Rachel insisted. 

I believe Booker T. Washington's model of education, combining rigorous study in the classics with manual labor and training in certain trades, would solve a great many of the issues for youth transitioning from school to the workplace. American schools need to revive that educational model, and parents should be pushing for that to happen.

Problems Coming Down the Pike

Will all this in mind, we can understand young people's difficulties in the workplace. Sadly, some of these young employees might not ever learn their belated lessons, while some will finally receive the push in their jobs that they need to put in the work they didn't have to in school (I know a few kids like that). Besides thinking of current young grads, we also need to think of those who are still in school and have a few more formative years before applying for jobs. 

Finance Buzz lists eight reasons why employers are frustrated with Gen Z. Not all of the reasons are condemnable in principle—such as having a work-life balance—but they can hold young grads back in the corporate world. 

Young people often have a different definition for what qualifies as, say, "mental health accommodations" or "reasonable vacation days." Several notable problems: Zoomers are more likely to turn down leadership opportunities, have greater inability to work creatively without minute directions, and engage in constant job-changing for the "ideal" position while calling for unreasonable "flexibility" demands. 

Notice that many of these issues overlap with bad habits that a lot of teachers and schools encourage. 

Previous generations stuck with a job even if it wasn't ideal and worked longer hours when they needed a promotion or a raise. Gen Z job-hop themselves into being unhireable, demand more money as their right, and are shocked when they must deal with a situation outside their narrow instructions. 

I recently watched a young Disneyland employee announce to a crowd, "The ride is temporarily closed from technical difficulties, thank you for your patience." She had to read a card slowly each time and stared in vacant dismay when asked questions seeking more details on the situation. 

Parents, teachers, and employers need to force youth to think outside the box, accept non-ideal work situations, take pride in the quality of their work, and acknowledge that employers—like employees—have rights too.

One of the most traditionally respected American career paths heavily impacted by the low standards, laziness, and technology obsession of Gen Z is the military. 

Patriotism isn't the only thing at low ebb. In June, Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reported "77% of our kids can't qualify for military service." Even those who do aren't necessarily ready for the rigorous demands of military life. 

Daniel served in the military for 20 years before retiring and becoming a civilian employee. He now helps train young recruits just starting off in their military careers, and he summed up the issues he has with them in one sentence: "They don't know how to handle stress, they don't know how to resolve problems, and they don't know how to talk to people." That's deeply concerning when applied to people who are supposed to defend America from tyrants and terrorists. 

We need to boost patriotism in our homes, churches, and schools, and push kids to spend time running around outdoors instead of always hunching over an iPad or TV screen. This year, when we celebrate America's 250th birthday, is the perfect time for adults and children alike to learn more about and celebrate our history and heroes. 

Teens whose idols are almost entirely celebrities and sports players need to hear about heroes like George and Martha Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Mitchell Paige, John Callendar, Stephen Moylan, John Paul Jones, U.S. Grant, Ronald Reagan, Molly Pitcher, George Patton, James Baskett, Fr. Vincent Capodanno, Elijah Anderson, and Sam Fletcher.

The problem of grads underprepared for the workforce is a complex one with solutions that could take years of corrections. But the implications of the current crisis, and the likelihood of its continuing into the future, do necessitate action. Adults are not kids with bigger backpacks, but adults were once children who either learned how to improve, adapt, and thrive or to shift blame and shirk responsibility. The latter cannot possibly run or renew a free and prosperous nation.

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