How new grads are changing their job search strategies

Key Findings

As the Class of 2025 enters the labor market, they face economic uncertainty and a job market that looks very different than it did even a couple of years ago. How are recent graduates adapting their career strategies in response to changes in the job market since 2020? Using U.S.-based Glassdoor jobs and salary data, we show where new college grads in the United States are applying and how these trends have changed since 2020.

Healthcare overtakes Technology as the most sought out industry for new grads

In 2025, Healthcare overtook Information Technology for the first time in at least 6 years since 2019. Healthcare made up 13.7% of all new grad applications, compared to IT with 12.4% of applications. This marks a significant drop since 2020, where IT made up a whopping 20.5% of applications.
While the tech industry remains an attractive industry in 2025, new college graduates are increasingly shifting towards other industries with more perceived job security. The rise of Healthcare, in particular, likely reflects growing economic wariness among new graduates who are choosing to prioritize stability in their early careers over the higher risk and reward in IT. This shift aligns with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ projections, which expect healthcare occupations to grow much faster than the average for all occupations between 2023 to 2033, with an estimated 1.9 million openings each year.  As the labor market continues to fluctuate, these choices suggest that new grads may be rethinking their priorities by favoring long-term stability.

While Healthcare has gained ground since 2020,  Financial Services  has seen little change, with consistent popularity in percent of applicants.  Other industries had notable growths in percent of new grad applications since 2020. For example, Manufacturing saw an increase of 7.8% in 2020 to 10.1%  in 2025, while Government entered the top 10 industries for applications in 2024, with 3.2% of total application. This new emergence in government roles may reflect shifting public sector roles along with appeals for perceived stability. Despite administrative cuts in the federal workforce,  state & local government jobs drove the growth in higher job gains in June. These trends suggest that new grads are gravitating towards industries that offer not only opportunity, but a sense of security as well. 

Apple, Amazon, and CVS Health attracted the most applicants in 2025

The tables below show the top 10 companies that new grads applied to in May 2020 and May 2025. Tech companies dominate both lists, with Amazon remaining a leader in both years. However, 2025 highlights two major shifts since 2020. First, percent of applications is more evenly distributed than 2020, where the top 10 employers in 2025 account for 4% of applications. This is down from 4.7% in 2020.  This points to a broader trend of new grads diversifying where they decide to apply, rather than only focusing on big name employers. Second, 3 healthcare companies (CVS Health, Optum, and Kaiser Permanente) have broken into the top 10, compared to none in 2020. This is alongside the fall out of the top 10 of EY and Goldman Sachs, which were part of the more traditional new grad employers in 2020, signaling a changing landscape when it comes to employer appeal and new grad sentiments in 2025.

A standout in the 2025 list is DataAnnotation, a company founded in 2021 that markets gig-based AI training, and is gathering strong interest from new grads. 

Top Employers New Grads are Applying to in 2020 & 2025

Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (www.glassdoor.com/research)

These changes suggest that new grads are spreading out their applications in both industry type and within each industry as well. While high-profile tech employers such as Apple, Amazon, and Google remain popular choices, applicants are exploring other opportunities in adjacent fields such as AI and Healthcare.

Tech jobs diversify beyond Software Engineers

The tables below show the top 10 jobs that new grads applied to in May 2020 and May 2025, and their average reported salary. Software engineer continues to lead in both years, which is not surprising given its high entry salary. Tech-adjacent career paths, however, seem to be on the rise for new grad applicants: roles like data analyst and software developer appear in 2025 but not in 2020.

There is a continued presence of research and education-related roles in both years, highlighting a persistence of these paths for new grads in pursuing academia, especially as a cooler job market may encourage students to stay in school longer. Customer service roles also remain a stable trend across both years. Although typically lower-paid, this may reflect a trend for new grads who prioritize finding any job rather than holding out for a higher paying role.

Top Jobs New Grads are Applying to in 2020 & 2025

Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (www.glassdoor.com/research)

Southern cities are on the rise in rankings for new grad interest

Lastly, we look at the major metros where new grad job seekers have been seeking work since 2019. The bump chart below tracks the changing rankings in top 10 metro areas where new grads applied to. While New York and Los Angeles have consistently remained at the top, other locations, such as San Francisco, have seen significant drops in total applicants. In contrast, Sunbelt cities such as Dallas, Atlanta, and Houston have all risen in ranks over the past 6 years: Dallas rose from 4.2% to 5.4%, Atlanta from 3.6% to 4.3%, and Houston from 3.2% to 3.9%.

These trends represent an overall shift away from traditional tech hubs located on the coasts, instead expanding into fast-growing, affordable cities with growing job opportunities.

Conclusion

New grads have adapted their strategies from past years in their job market searches and applications. Faced with broader economic uncertainty, they are applying to a wider range of industries, roles, and employers than they did in 2020 while prioritizing more long-term opportunity. Whether it's moving to more affordable cities or expanding their job applications to industries they may not have considered, the Class of 2025 are pivoting their career paths in response to a job market that no longer guarantees reliable employment as it did even years before.

Methodology

This analysis is based on Glassdoor data on U.S. new graduates, defined as individuals with one year or less of relevant experience, working in early-career, non-senior and non-managerial roles, and reporting annual base pay under $200,000. Job application activity was analyzed across May of 2019-2025.

Application trends were measured using job click data, identifying the top industries, employers, metro areas, and roles that attracted early-career job seekers. To track application behavior, we counted applications from users who we identify as new graduates in the two years prior to the application; for example, applications in  2025 were linked to users identified as new graduates between 2023 and 2025. All findings are limited to job seekers and full-time roles located in the United States.