As graduations wind down, the Class of 2024 faces its next milestone: securing that first job after college.
Too bad that employers don’t want to hire them.
For starters, there’s the resume kiss of death earned by antisemitic protesters that have roiled college campuses. While many concealed their identities with masks and keffiyehs, CEOs and other leaders have stated that they wouldn’t hire alumni from colleges who hosted anti-Israel demonstrations.
In a recent survey of 1,268 business leaders in the U.S. by higher education publication Intelligent.com, almost two-thirds of employers said they were reluctant to hire protesters because they may exhibit confrontational behavior in the workplace and over half say it’s because they are too political and could make other workers feel uncomfortable, as CNBC reported.
The vigorous ignorance on display in these rallies and encampments is another red flag. They chant “from the river to the sea,” but when pressed to name what river and which sea, they are clueless. The same goes for knowing the fundamentals: that Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jews, and the history of Palestinian politics.
“I have had many conversations, as you have had, with a lot of young people over the last many months,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on MSNBC earlier this month. “They don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East or frankly about history in many areas of the world, including in our own country.”
It’s part of an overarching assessment of Gen Z that’s turning off recruiters.
In a recent Freedom Economy Index survey conducted by PublicSquare and RedBalloon, 68% of small business owners said Gen Zers were the “least reliable” of all their employees, as Newsweek reported.
One of the surveyed employers spoke of Gen Z’s “absolute delusion, complete lack of common sense, and zero critical reasoning or basic analytical skills.”
Less than 4% said Gen Z was the generation that most aligns with their workplace culture, and 62% said Gen Z was the most likely to create division and toxicity in the workplace.
There are, however, those in this cohort who swim against the tide: hardworking, intelligent innovators eager to make positive changes in their communities and with skills and the work ethic that make them stand out to hiring companies.
They’d rather roll up their sleeves than spend time virtue-signaling, and while this would appeal to those on the hiring side, many want to forge their own path.
A report last fall from Samsung and Morning Consult found 50% of Gen Z aspires to become an entrepreneur or start their own business. It’s stats like this that offer hope in a strong future for America.
Not all are on board. They’re the American flag burners, the TikTok whiners making “corporate America is so unfair” posts, and the professional protesters eager to block roads and bridges and cause general disruption for the cause du jour.
Unfortunately, they’re also a voting bloc coveted by leaders willing to bend to their sense of victimhood and entitlement.
So to the Class of 2024, good luck kids, you’re going to need it.
And good luck America.
