Gen Z hiring trends for 2025
Discover behind-the-scenes insights to help you hit the ground running in 2025.
At the end of every fall recruiting season, we look back at a year’s worth of Handshake platform data to uncover the trends that are shaping Gen Z recruiting. Here are our top takeaways for 2024—ten exclusive insights that will help you finish this year strong and plan ahead for 2025.
- Fastest-growing majors
- Application trends by industry
- Top employer branding tactics
- Best days for virtual events
- Most searched-for job locations
- Search trends for remote and hybrid roles
- Remote work trends by industry
- Most searched-for employer benefits
- Salary trends across the US
- How students build community
More students earn degrees in finance and tech
Computer science continues to gain popularity as an undergraduate major, with 5.9% of Class of 2025 students pursuing CS degrees compared to 4.8% of the Class of 2024. Other majors seeing growth this year include accounting, finance, and mechanical engineering.
Students in common majors explore more industries
With competition for jobs increasing and technology hiring contracting, early talent has become more open to a wider range of industries and roles. That trend continued in 2024. For example, computer science students submitted only about half of their applications to roles with technology companies this year, spreading the remainder over industries such as manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and government.
Employers double down on early talent brand
Employer reputation is a key factor in new grads’ job decisions, and employers are increasingly recognizing the importance of offering an authentic look at their culture and values. Brand-building was front and center in the words and phrases used in employer posts on the Handshake feed this year, including the following top terms for 2024:
Check out the example posts below for inspiration:
Virtual events peak mid-week
Employers hosted more than 10,000 virtual events on Handshake between January and October 2024. The most popular days of the week to host events were Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Weekday events saw more than 2X as many attendees, on average, as virtual events on weekends, with Wednesday netting the highest attendance numbers.
The sleeper hit for virtual events, though, is Monday. Although employers scheduled fewer than half as many events on Monday compared to mid-week, attendance at those events came close to Tuesday and Thursday averages.
Southern cities gain search traffic
Although cities like New York and San Francisco continue to attract a high volume of early talent applicants, students are showing growing interest in locations across the south: searches for roles in cities like Houston, Atlanta, and Charlotte spiked in 2024. Meanwhile, searches for roles based in major California cities declined. This trend speaks to an ongoing shift in where students want to live and work after graduation, driven by a combination of factors such as cost of living and proximity to family.
Remote roles decline, but students still search for them
Only 4% of full-time jobs posted on Handshake in 2024 were remote, down from 5% in 2023 and 7% in 2022. But students are still curious about remote opportunities. Of all the searches students conducted for full-time jobs on Handshake in 2024, 21% filtered specifically for remote jobs.
In contrast, 17% of jobs posted this year offered hybrid work options. Yet only 9% of full-time job searches filtered specifically for hybrid jobs—despite the fact that, when asked about their work arrangement preferences, a majority of students express a preference for hybrid work. This could be because students who prefer hybrid work are generally more flexible in their job preferences and are less likely to filter for specific work arrangements.
Industries diverge on remote and hybrid work
Technology employers were most likely to offer remote and hybrid work options in 2024—more than 1 in 3 roles posted by tech companies were hybrid, and 1 in 7 were remote. Meanwhile, roles in hospitality, education, and retail were largely in-person.
Benefits take center stage in the job search
With early talent increasingly prioritizing stability and well-being at work, employer benefits are coming under closer scrutiny. More than half of students who searched for full-time jobs on Handshake in 2024 specifically filtered for employers that offer health benefits. A third specifically filtered for paid time off, and close to 1 in 10 filtered for 401(k) matching, tuition reimbursement, and relocation assistance.
Entry-level salaries rise, but only slightly
For a generation that’s more and more concerned about financial security, starting salary is a major consideration when selecting a first job.
The overall median salary for jobs posted on Handshake increased by $2,500 in 2024, to $65,000 per year. However, salary fluctuations vary widely by location. California saw the largest median salary increase over the past year, while salaries in some other states (including New York, Illinois, and Missouri) held steady or declined.
Students seek community and connection
Gen Z isn’t shy about asking for—or offering—community support in the job search. Students took to the Handshake feed in 2024 to make connections, share goals, and exchange advice, as demonstrated by this year’s top terms in student posts:
Here are just a few student posts that stood out this year:
Get your custom insights to start planning for 2025
Request your custom Handshake year in review to learn how your Gen Z recruiting strategy performed in 2024, and get personalized recommendations for 2025.