Finding a fit: Social skills are key for college grads entering a challenging job market

Carol Carter is typically in a frenzy this time of the year in preparation for her organization’s annual conference each June. 

But this year, it’s been unusually hectic at the nonprofit she started about a decade ago to help students, especially those who are first in their family to attend college. Denver-based GlobalMindEd helps students gain professional skills and “social capital,” like networking and working with mentors, through programs that can lead to a job, or at least a foot in the door. 

And that’s vital as Carter is finding that the mentors themselves are struggling in their own jobs.

“Microsoft just laid off 6,000 people (last month). Hewlett Packard has had downsizing,” said Carter, who heard from mentors, supporters and sponsors impacted by layoffs and funding cuts. “And then obviously, there’s the loss of different government jobs. A lot of very qualified people are looking for work (and) the net of this is it really affects people who are in college right now because there are a lot of different people competing for these kinds of jobs that would otherwise be considered more entry-level professionals.”

College graduates are facing one of the most competitive job markets in recent years, excluding the year of pandemic job losses. As the state’s unemployment rate has risen, March data shows that nearly every state recorded no growth in available jobs, compared with a year ago, according to federal labor data. Colorado now has 1.1 available jobs for every unemployed worker. Two years ago, there was one unemployed worker for every three openings. 

A prime sponsor for GlobalMindED’s conference last year pulled back this year because a chunk of its business comes from the U.S. Department of Education, which the Trump administration ordered be dismantled (a federal judge blocked the order last month). Representatives from a few out-of-state colleges were interested in attending but weren’t approved because of “language fallouts,” she said. A board member was recently laid off at a major technology company. 

Microsoft officials turned down a request to comment on how it supports talent pipelines. HP didn’t respond. Other workforce organizations that provide training to underrepresented workers also passed on commenting. It’s a touchy time to publicly discuss layoffs, federal pullbacks or programs that mention diversity, even if they’re aimed at helping citizens find better jobs. 

“I think it’s fair to say what are the broader patterns that are going on as people are graduating this season,” said Carter, who added GlobalMindED’s program is a “hidden curriculum” built on the little things one learns outside of the classroom that provide career support. 

“There’s layoffs in the technology sectors. There’s massive government layoffs. There’s layoffs because of tariffs,” she added. “Those are affecting graduates, which is why if people are graduating and don’t have a job, everybody needs … to really take responsibility themselves for making a vast network that most of them don’t have yet. Job security in the age of AI is the human network that most don’t have yet.”

Jobs are available but finding the fit is still a problem

Colorado’s unemployment rate hit 4.8% as of April, a steady rise from 2.6% in August 2022. That’s still considered a low rate and hovering around full employment. Too low and employers can’t find enough workers.

Younger workers traditionally have higher unemployment rates than the entire working-age population, which counts people 16 and older. Teenagers have the highest unemployment rates while those 20 to 24 are next, according to data from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. 

But a closer look at 20- to 24-year-old Coloradans shows that young male workers have seen a large drop off in those who are working or looking for work, compared to females in the same age group, said Monicque Aragon, an economist for the state’s labor department.

“While labor force participation historically trends higher for men than for women, since 2000, men’s overall participation rate is down over eight percentage points while women’s is down just over two percentage points,” Aragon said in an email. “When looking at those aged 20-24 specifically, men’s participation is at a 25-year historical low, while women’s participation has been rising since 2022 and is at a historical high.” 

And for the young men in the labor force, they’re seeing higher rates of unemployment than their female counterparts, she pointed out. One possibility for that gender difference is that the typically male-dominated industries, such as manufacturing and construction, have had weaker growth in recent years, compared to “stronger growth in female dominated sectors like healthcare and social assistance,” she said.

Tatiana Bailey, an economist at Data-Driven Economic Strategies in Colorado Springs, said more young men are likely in the informal labor force and driving for Uber or Lyft. But there’s been a decline in the number of working-age men for years.

“One of the statistics that is really stark is in 1950, 1 in 50 prime-working-age men, which is 25 to 54, were not in the labor force. Today, it’s 1 in 9,” Bailey said. “When I first saw that, I was like come on, that can’t be right. It’s from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and they’ve been tracking the stuff for a long time and it kind of fits with the decline in the labor participation rate in the United States as a whole.”

Bailey has analyzed the local labor market for years and said that some reasons why people aren’t finding jobs is because the folks looking for jobs don’t fit employer job descriptions. 

“The people who are going to college, are we setting them up for success?” she said. “Let’s face it, traditional liberal arts education is not what most employers are looking for. Do they like it when somebody has a college degree? Yes. But they also need that individual to have very specialized skills and that’s not really what universities are typically teaching.”

Finding an edge

That’s where a lot of workforce development organizations have stepped in. 

Denver-based HighView created a program that looks for high-achieving high school students who come from low-income families and hope to be the first in their family to attend a four-year college. 

Founder Nicole Baraff, who previously worked at local tech companies Ibotta and PaySimple, said her research showed that only 15% of first-generation, low-income students graduate from college. And of those who graduate, 85% find a job through personal recommendations. She wants to be there to help those students make more connections, gain public-speaking skills and learn how to network so they get a job right out of college. 

“Think about the network gap for a kid whose parents never went to college. Their uncle is not on the board of Ibotta or Guild. They’re not getting access to those summer internships and those entry-level roles coming out of college,” Baraff said. “We are providing a really sustained and immersive exposure in some of the top companies like Guild, Salesforce, DaVita, IMA, Adobe, Accenture and Amazon. Those are all of our partner companies.”

Its first participants are now graduating from college and getting hired — at an average starting salary of $72,000.

But HighView also relies on volunteers, donations, corporate sponsors and grants to keep the work going. 

When sponsors have layoffs, which has happened, “we might lose one or two mentors,” she said. “One of our partner companies, which is a global company, sunset all of its DEI programs. … Then they had a meeting with us and they said, ‘but we’re going to continue our relationship with you because we believe in what you’re doing.’ This is not a DEI play. This is a talent development play and an employee engagement play.”

Some industries aren’t seeing the same sort of economic downturn, like the quantum computing industry. Elevate Quantum, the Colorado consortium of quantum-related companies and supporters, is still moving forward on a $41 million federal grant it received last year to build out a Tech Hub for Colorado. 

Last week, Elevate announced a partnership with IBM to help train 3,500 new workers by 2030. There’s little additional costs involved since IBM already provides free training online. It provides IBM’s quantum curriculum to local colleges that want to offer training to students around the state.

“Things are moving, even with a lot of the NSF (National Science Foundation) cuts. We’ve seen quantum to be a priority,” said Jessi Olsen, Elevate’s chief operating officer. “There’s been a lot of cuts but the quantum programs we’ve seen are largely preserved.”

Investing beyond the classroom still a priority even for colleges

Officials at Front Range Community College plan to more than double the number of students it’s taking to GlobalMindED’s conference this year — to 60 from 25 last year. 

The college, which has locations in Longmont, Westminster and Fort Collins, caters to students of all ages. Most attend part-time because they need to work. Nearly half are first-generation college students with neither parent having earned a bachelor’s degree. 

And getting to college is a good start, but just a start, said Krishna Pattisapu, executive director of equity and inclusion at Front Range Community College

“For me, as a first-gen student, the reason this work is so important is because I knew about five different careers I could pick from when I was in high school,” Pattisapu said. “Going to college just opened my eyes to so many different industries and ways that you can utilize your skills and your interests to find the job that you love and doesn’t feel like you’re working.”

The school seeks out local partners to connect its students. Its workforce development department keeps track of growing industries that need workers, like nearby chipmaker Broadcom. The two partnered to offer college classes on site at the company’s manufacturing plant in Fort Collins. 

An opportunity like the GlobalMindED conference is a way to get students in front of employers and mentors and a way for the school to support students beyond the classroom, Pattisapu said.

“The community is our resource. We serve the community and they serve us,” Pattisapu said. “That expands what we offer, and we don’t necessarily have to offer it in house. It’s about building those partnerships, leveraging opportunities.”