When the government shut down in October 2025, Sergio Pineda’s employer placed him on unpaid leave and told him it would likely be temporary. But days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and in January, the company officially terminated his employment. That's when Pineda’s story followed an exhausting script: seemingly countless job applications; next to no responses.

The conversation around artificial intelligence can feel a little extreme. Untold revolutionary benefits on one side, dire existential crises on the other—sometimes in the same sentence. This is especially true when it comes to work. Tech executives and industry leaders have made sweeping declarations about AI's power to reshape industries while forecasting the technology will eliminate vast swaths of jobs within just a few years.

According to recent Indeed Hiring Lab research, employer demand for college degrees is falling, and our new survey reveals workers have mixed feelings about the ROI of higher education. 

We surveyed¹ 772 professionals in the U.S. with an associate degree or higher, revealing that about half of the respondents from Generation Z, more than any other generation, are skeptical about the value of their degree.