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| Gen Z men are more unemployed than women. RUNSTUDIO/Getty Images |
Young men from Gen Z are facing steeper job market challenges than their female peers and the divergence may come down to which careers are still thriving.
It’s a tough time for new graduates entering the workforce. Traditional career paths in industries like tech, law, and government are evaporating, while artificial intelligence is reshaping or eliminating many entry-level roles altogether. College degrees are being questioned for their value, and more young people are turning to skilled trades as a fallback. Meanwhile, job growth is slowing: the U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in July, with a rise in unemployment and fewer Americans participating in the labor force.
But among this generational shake-up, one pattern stands out: Gen Z men are struggling more than women. Since the pandemic, young men have consistently faced higher unemployment rates than women of the same age group. One reason? Women are making gains in the few sectors that are still expanding.
“Elise Gould,” a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told Truth Sider, “Employers are staying loyal to their current workforce, and employees are holding on to their roles. That makes it more difficult for newcomers especially men looking in slow-hiring industries to get a foot in the door.”
Young Women Are Thriving in Healthcare
One of the few job sectors that’s still growing is healthcare a field where Gen Z women dominate.
Over the first half of the year, healthcare continued to add jobs steadily. Other growing fields, like education and hospitality, also lean female. This comes as overall job creation slowed dramatically in July, with just 73,000 new roles added far below the projected 106,000. Revisions showed that earlier monthly job numbers had also been significantly overestimated, and industries like business and tech are now seeing sluggish hiring and even layoffs.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, the information and business sectors home to jobs like analysts, consultants, and software developers have some of the weakest growth so far in 2025. These male-dominated industries are also some of the most susceptible to AI disruption, especially at the entry level.
Nursing, in contrast, remains a reliable career path. A 2022 BLS report showed that about 90% of practical nurses, registered nurses, and nurse practitioners were women. The number of men entering nursing has stalled since 2019 after years of gradual growth. And the unemployment rate for nursing graduates is among the lowest of all majors, according to a 2023 analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Take Semee Lim, 26, a neonatal nurse in Florida. Her days are filled with caring for newborns and helping parents adjust. Lim said her job is demanding but always in demand.
“I’ve been fortunate in how easy it’s been to change jobs,” Lim said. “There’s always a nursing shortage.”
Lim, who graduated in 2021, recalled working with only a handful of male nurses since entering the profession.
The Gender Employment Gap Is Widening
While young men have historically had slightly higher unemployment rates than women, that gap is now growing among Gen Z college graduates. For recent male grads between ages 22 and 27, the jobless rate has surged from under 5% to about 7% in the past year, according to a Financial Times analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. Among young women with degrees, the rate has stayed relatively flat.
Women are also pulling ahead in education and homeownership. In 1995, about 25% of both young men and women had a bachelor’s degree. By 2024, Pew Research Center data shows that 47% of women aged 25 to 34 had a degree, compared to just 37% of men. And LendingTree found that single women owned 2.7 million more homes in the U.S. than single men, based on 2021 census data.
Still, there's a tradeoff. While female-dominated fields like healthcare offer stability, they often come with lower pay. Lim said she’s acutely aware of this reality.
“Nursing doesn’t pay as much as I wish it did,” she said. “But it’s a job that’s incredibly rewarding.”
In 2023, the median salary for an entry-level nurse was about $65,000. Compare that to entry-level roles in computer science, where the median was $80,000. Yet healthcare careers are likely to see continued growth as aging baby boomers require more medical support.
“If we can improve pay and working conditions in traditionally female-dominated sectors, we may see more men enter those fields,” Gould said. “It’s not complicated we’ve undervalued essential jobs for too long.”
