Elliot Novak is about to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in art education, but it’s a hard time to start as a teacher. President Donald Trump issued an executive order to close the Department of Education, and there have been mass layoffs within the department.
“Even with the state level government being more supportive, there's a lot of issues with the federal office not really being there,” Novak said.
Novak isn’t alone in their apprehensions; while it takes several months of economic downturn to know if the United States is in a recession, some seniors graduating in May said they already feel the job market shrinking.
Between massive federal funding cuts and the shaky rollout of global tariffs, U.S. markets have become increasingly volatile in the last month. Some banks, like J.P. Morgan, have predicted a 60% chance of recession by the end of the year.
With more upheaval looming on the horizon, Novak expects lots of teachers to take early retirements. The upside is that there may be lots of open positions soon, but the downside that is many of those positions will stay empty. Though Novak isn’t worried about a job in the fall, Forbes reported federal cuts could exacerbate the pre-existing teaching shortage.
“We don't have the funding to compensate the teachers for the extra stress that they have to endure,” Novak said. “So it's not really [a] sustainable thing, but I'm trying to make it sustainable.”
While Novak is dedicated to making it work in Wisconsin, others have given up on the U.S. job market completely. Danielle Anderson studied rehabilitation psychology and wanted to work for an elder care nonprofit. But next year, she will move to Thailand to teach English to elementary school students.
“I'm not in a rush to come back to the U.S. or go back to school,” Anderson said. “It's kind of a way of getting away from the U.S. job market while also getting some international experience.”
As part of Trump’s federal funding cuts, many nonprofits stopped receiving federal grants and, according to Anderson, aren’t hiring. The few job openings she has found aren’t for new graduates.
She’s set to work in Thailand for at least a year, but she’ll probably stay abroad longer. Anderson was already planning on taking a gap year before going to graduate school, but funding cuts to graduate programs have changed those plans as well.
“It's definitely influenced me to take a couple gap years and figure out how [funding] is gonna change before I make that decision,” Anderson said.
While Anderson and Novak have plans after college, both said many of their graduating friends aren’t happy with the job market and have recalibrated their options.
“A lot of people are moving home and working their jobs from high school that they had or finding things in fields that maybe aren't exactly what they want to do but relate enough,” Anderson said. “I think the common theme that I'm noticing with my friends is ‘I just want to find a job. It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter if it's in the field that I was studying all four years. I just want to find a job.’”
