How cuts to DEI and a soft job market may affect new Black college grads

The class of 2025 faces an uncertain future, but they also say they are seeking jobs in companies where “I’m wanted, not where I’m tolerated.”

Howard University senior Dezmond Rosier had his sights set on the federal government to begin his career.

The 22-year-old, who graduated this month with a bachelor’s degree in political science and an economics minor, planned to apply to the Department of Education, but cuts to the department’s workforce and the Trump administration’s efforts to ditch anything related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives prompted him to change course.

Rosier, a first-generation college student, said President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to dismantle the Department of Education and his moves to put the plan in motion once he entered the White House left him feeling “discouraged.”

Rosier is one of four Black students who spoke with NBC News about graduating into a job market that has seen DEI rollbacks, less outward enthusiasm for recruiting Black workers and signs of a cooldown in hiring for everyone. New college graduates’ unemployment rate was 5.8% as of March, up from 4.6% a year earlier, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported last week.

Walter Pearson, the CEO of College Bound Parenting, an organization that helps Black college students prepare for jobs, said most years he is able to help 90% of the small group of students he works with land their first job. This year, it’s just 50%. Meanwhile, most of the students who spoke to NBC News said they are graduating without job offers and feel uncertain about a future in which they may be overlooked for jobs without specific guardrails in place.