This year’s job market has been bleak, to say the least. Layoffs hit the highest level in 14 years; job openings are barely budging; and quits figures are plummeting. It’s no wonder people feel stuck and discouraged—especially as many candidates have been on the job hunt for a year.
But some mid-career professionals are working with the cards they’ve been dealt by going back to school. Many are turning to data analytics, cybersecurity, AI-focused courses, health care, MBA programs, or trade certifications for an “immediate impact on their careers,” Metaintro CEO Lacey Kaelani told Fortune.
But while grad school can certainly offer the opportunity to level-up your career once you’ve completed a program, it comes with financial and personal sacrifices, like time. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, one year of grad school, on average, costs about $43,000 in tuition. That’s nearly 70% of the average salary in the U.S.
I did it early in the pandemic in anticipation of the current recession. Honestly I got pretty dang lucky with the timing but not for the reasons I thought going in. Graduated at the tale end of the hiring craze in 2023, snagged a pretty sweet role that honestly puts me in a good spot resume-wise
I do think if I lose my current role I’m probably going to go back to college and work on my bachelor’s. I’ve been job hunting for most of 2025. I’ve applied to about a hundred jobs, had 5 interviews and no job offers. Two years ago I applied to 5 jobs got 3 interviews and 2 job offers within 3 weeks.
I know someone who couldn’t land a job for 6 months while hunting for shitty retail work, y’know the kind of job where the only requirement is a semi-warm body. That’s how utterly fucked the current labor market is
what was your field if i may ask? and what degree you planning on getting?
Oh yea job sites are terrible even for retail, sometimes you dont even hear back from them, or they say you dint do x this and that before an interview. job sites made it worst, especially because they originally used software to make nebelous reason why they reject people(they never tell the applicant), and now using AI to screen out AI resume is hilarious.
I work in IT. With my 2 year degree I was able to walk into a low level admin role immediately after graduation, and I think it was my internship and callcenter experience filling the expected help desk experience.
Its actually funny, I got laid off at the end of 2024 as part of the company relocating, I landed a pretty sweet role at a pretty lousy company that made up a reason to fire me, then my old job called begging me to come back as a contractor. I did the math and I’m making more now working part time than I did when I was working for them full time.
As for what I’ll go to school for if I do find myself unemployed again, I’m not entirely certain. I’m in a weird spot right now where I’d love to get hired on full time and do what I currently do for a few years but it’s also not quite the dream job that I keep seeing people working and I find myself feeling a twinge of jealousy. I’m thinking there’s a good chance I might aim for a side transition maybe into business analytics or project management, but I could also just go all in and get a bachelor’s in networking. It might just come down to what degree programs are available at schools I can attend if/when I do it