Park: Why we need a new Marshall Plan for the next generation

Across America, young people are discovering the old promise of “go to college, work hard and you will find a good job” no longer holds. Hiring rates for recent college graduates fell by more than 20% in the past year,  according to BBC News.

For the first time in more than 40 years, graduates now face a higher unemployment rate than the general population, according to The Atlantic. Young people who did everything right, from earning degrees to building resumes to interning at brand-name companies, are sending out hundreds of applications and hearing nothing back. The process has grown demoralizing. The job market now feels like endless swipes on a broken app. One graduate applied to 200 jobs and never received a single response, The Atlantic reported. It is no wonder so many feel stuck, disillusioned or forced into side hustles that don’t offer stability.

Artificial intelligence is accelerating the crisis. It is moving straight into the professional core of our economy, swallowing the entry-level work that used to be the first rung of a career ladder. CEOs themselves admit AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs. Postings for entry-level roles are already down 35% since 2023, with some firms cutting new graduate hiring by 50%, according to Bloomberg TV. Without a first rung, the ladder to opportunity collapses.

The consequences are severe. California, once a symbol of opportunity, now leads the nation in unemployment, tying for the highest jobless rate in June 2025 at 5.4%, the Orange County Register reported. The average electricity bill in the state is $186, nearly 30% higher than the national average, according to Solar Reviews.

The median age of a first-time homebuyer has climbed to 38. Locked out of housing, Gen Z is improvising. Business Insider reports retail investing among 25-year-olds has increased sixfold since 2015. It’s adaptive, but it underscores how thin the safety net has become.

This is not just economics. It’s about who we are as a country. For young people, this crisis is a daily experience of rejection, stalled progress and fear that the future is narrowing. BBC Global reported Gen Z is the most pessimistic of any age group about what lies ahead.

The U.S. has faced moments like this before and chose to act boldly. After World War II, when Europe lay in ruins, America did not tinker at the edges. We invested more than $13 billion to rebuild economies and stabilize democracies. That was the Marshall Plan, as recounted by the National Archives.

Today’s crisis for young workers demands the same kind of vision. A Marshall Plan for the next generation would treat the collapse of entry-level opportunities as a national emergency and call on the federal government to step up, not with half-measures, but with a comprehensive commitment to ensure young Americans can build stable lives in the age of AI.

Our young people deserve more than precarious gigs, endless side hustles and rejection emails. They deserve a real chance to work, to contribute and to thrive. Meeting that standard requires us to be as bold in this decade as our predecessors were in 1948. It requires a Marshall Plan for the next generation, because anything less is not enough. And if we fail to act, this crisis will only deepen as AI develops at breakneck speed.

Jason Isaac Park represents California on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and is the first Gen Z Californian elected to a four-year term on the DNC. He is speaking solely on behalf of himself.