As millions of Gen Zers face unemployment, CEOs of Amazon, Walmart, and McDonald’s say opportunity is still there—if you have the right mindset

2025 has been a rocky year for Gen Z college graduates. Entry-level hiring has slowed, competition has intensified, and the once-reliable promise that a degree would translate neatly into a stable career has started to fray.

Some CEOs, including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Ford’s Jim Farley, have even used their platforms to warn that AI and automation pose existential threats to many entry-level roles. 

But while there are signs that 2026 could bring further turbulence, not every executive message has been a bleak one.