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Newsweek
2 days ago
- Business
- Newsweek
Entry-Level Jobs For Gen Z Are Disappearing: Experts
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The AI revolution isn't just on its way; it's happening, and the impacts of this new technology are quickly being felt, particularly by Gen Z. Born between 1997 and 2012, Gen Z is expected to make up approximately 30 percent of the global workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the workforce they're entering is rapidly changing. According to a YouGov survey from March 2025, the majority of Americans (56 percent) use AI tools, and 28 percent use AI tools weekly, while a recent study from KPMG found that 66 percent of people regularly use AI. One impact of AI is that it is quickly coming for entry-level jobs, meaning that they don't just look different; soon, they may not exist at all. Newsweek spoke to the experts to find out more. Are Entry-Level Jobs Being Replaced By AI? Millions of students will be graduating this spring. But the mood as they do so may be a trepidatious one, as experts are continuing to sound the alarm on a decline in entry-level jobs. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty/Canva Aneesh Raman, LinkedIn's chief economic opportunity officer, likened the shift to the decline in manufacturing in the early 1980s in an op-ed for The New York Times, while a report from Signalfire said that entry-level jobs are "collapsing," and a "generational hiring shift is leaving new graduates behind." So, why are entry-level jobs being hit hard by AI? "Entry-level jobs tend to involve routine, well-defined tasks—exactly the kind of work current AI systems are best suited to automate," Professor Daniela Rus, the Director of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, told Newsweek over email. Keri Mesropov, founder of Spring Talent Development, shared a similar sentiment. Speaking to Newsweek over email, she said, "AI is rapidly reshaping entry-level jobs, automating repetitive tasks, streamlining workflows, and, in some cases, eliminating roles entirely." Mesropov said that this technological leap could open the door to work that is more strategic and engaging. But "it also removes many of the formative, tacit-knowledge building experiences that previously shaped early career development." A Changing Workplace Culture Newsweek also spoke to Josh Bersin, a global industry analyst and CEO at The Josh Bersin Company. Bersin told Newsweek that entry work is not going away. However, it is changing. "Entry-level hiring has slowed," he told Newsweek, but said that this is "largely because of the economy." And economic concerns are high. President Donald Trump's economic agenda, particularly the imposition of tariffs on dozens of American trading partners, has sparked fears that the economy will tip into a recession, marked by weak growth, job losses and further inflation. It's not the easiest environment for young people to be graduating into. However, Bersin told Newsweek that the large companies he speaks to tell him they are, in fact, hiring college graduates for two key reasons. Part of the reason companies have entry-level roles is to "build a talent pipeline," pointing to younger people as "candidates for future growth." "Great employers succeed by retaining workers and developing them into leaders," Bersin said. And, this isn't the first time that the workplace has been transformed by new technologies. Bersin likened the shift to the digital revolution of the 2000s and said, "As with all technology evolutions, the AI revolution creates many new careers," including "building AI systems, managing AI data, training and administering AI platforms, and then the higher level jobs of "leveraging" and using AI in legal, HR, design, sales, creative work." To Rus, it's about evolution. "Rather than eliminating the need for early-career professionals, AI shifts the nature of their contributions," she said, adding, "We still need people to understand how these systems work, to adapt them to specific contexts, to troubleshoot unexpected behavior, and to build the next generation of tools." "We need a strong pipeline of talent that starts with entry-level roles, internships, and hands-on learning opportunities," Rus said. "These early experiences remain essential stepping stones, helping people build technical confidence, domain fluency, and problem-solving skills. And soon, the skills companies will be looking for in entry-level workers is how well they can make the most of AI tools." Though it's easy to forget through the noise of alarms sounding about the AI revolution, AI requires human interference. Mesropov highlighted this, noting that the technology needs "sophisticated human input context-heavy prompts and judgment calls only developed through lived experience." A New Gen, In A New Gen Workplace According to YouGov's March data, adults under 30 are more likely than older Americans to use AI tools (76 percent vs. 51 percent) and are more likely to use AI at least weekly. Newsweek also spoke with Professor Melissa Valentine, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. In a phone call with Newsweek, she highlighted how tech-literate Gen Z is. "Their skills are changing," she said. Valentine said that when you've had technology integrated into your life, "It's a different mechanism." And according to Valentine, the onus isn't on Gen Z to figure out how to optimize this best. "It's up to companies to be ready to figure out how to make use of kids who are so good at technology." Valentine shared a real-world example of this, explaining that she had a young man join her team who was "so digitally savvy." "He just came in and picked up all the internal tools to make the AI agent for himself," she said. "People on his team who were in their forties, they were using Gen AI," she said. But not like the younger colleague could. "He was one of the most AI power users that I've seen. Rus echoed this. "The advantage Gen Z has is that they are digital natives. They are well-positioned to work alongside AI, not in opposition to it," she told Newsweek. "Young people today are using AI to solve problems and even have fun by creating stories and images." This isn't just an era of digital natives then, but AI natives, according to Rus. Gen Z's "Comfort with rapid technological change makes them ideal candidates to help shape how we use these tools ethically, inclusively, and creatively." For Bersin, the prevalence of AI literacy in young people is a key part of what makes them attractive to employers. "They see tremendous skills in using AI and bringing new ideas in younger workers," he said. Looking Ahead The future then is unclear but not necessarily bleak. "There's an optimistic path: if we rethink what early-career roles look like, we can design new kinds of "onramps" that blend learning with production—such as AI-assisted engineering apprenticeships, project-based learning environments, and hybrid human-AI teams," Rus told Newsweek. Mesropov told Newsweek that the remaining jobs in five years will demand "more than technical talent." "They'll require emotional intelligence, communication, adaptability and critical reasoning," she said. Mesropov highlighted the importance of building these skills alongside AI, noting that without this, "Gen Z will fall behind not just in how to use AI, but in how to lead with it." Valentine told Newsweek that there is an "opportunity for business models to evolve and shift" where "information is more readily at our fingertips." "What if we solved problems better?" Valentine said. "That's my hope. And I do think it's possible."
American Military News
3 days ago
- Business
- American Military News
College degree no longer guarantees post-grad employment
Hope Anderson tracks her job search in a spreadsheet, highlighting the rejections in red. After more than six months and 40-plus applications, she's seeing nothing but red. 'I knew it was going to be hard, and I knew it was going to be a lot of work,' said the 21-year-old Eden Prairie, Minnesota, resident, who graduated from Iowa State University in May with an event-management degree. 'But I didn't think that I would have absolutely nothing after months.' A growing group of young, college-educated Americans are struggling to find work as the unemployment rate for recent graduates outpaces overall unemployment for the first time in decades. While the national unemployment rate has hovered around 4% for months, the rate for 20-something degree holders is nearly 6%, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows. The amount of time young workers report being unemployed is also on the rise. Economists attribute some of the shift to normal post-pandemic cooling of labor market, which is making it harder for job-seekers of all ages to land a gig. But there's also widespread economic uncertainty causing employers to pull back on hiring and signs AI could replace entry-level positions. Employers added 139,000 jobs in May with unemployment unchanged at 4.2%, according to data the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released last week. But the report 'points to an economy and employment that is weakening somewhat and gives some cause for continued concern over the direction of stagflation,' said David Royal, chief financial and investment officer at Thrivent Financial, in a statement. 'There is underlying weakness in today's report with downward revisions to the prior two months and a decline in labor force participation, signaling a weakening employment picture,' he said. The struggle for recent graduates comes down to a mismatch between worker supply and employer demand, said Matthew Martin, senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. That's not going to change anytime soon, he said. 'What we're actually likely to see over the coming months is a weaker labor market, just as businesses in general are dealing with high levels of uncertainty, reduced demand due to tariffs, higher input costs,' he said. 'This issue for college graduates is only likely to get worse before it gets better.' College graduates historically have fared better in the job market than those without a degree, earning higher salaries and facing lower unemployment. 'At the same time, younger workers are those who are going to be a little less firmly attached to the labor force and will be especially sensitive to the labor market conditions that they experience when they go out and look for work,' Ryan Nunn with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis said earlier this month. Entering the labor market in an economic downturn can limit career success. Many millennials who graduated into the Great Recession saw big drops in earnings and recovered more slowly than older workers, according to data from the Minneapolis Fed. The U.S. is not currently in a recession, though recent graduates are finding themselves in a similar bind. For some, that has meant rethinking the kinds of jobs they're willing to take. Mankato, Minnesota, native Rachel Kuzma, 31, earned an anthropology Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis a year ago. After hundreds of job applications, she has landed just two unsuccessful interviews. At this point, she said, she just needs a job. 'Any thought I had about a career trajectory is just gone now, because the market just won't allow it,' Kuzma said. Sophia Sailer, who graduated with a master's degree in marketing from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management in May, recently accepted a part-time hourly job after months of networking and more than 60 job applications. Plans to move out of her parents' Eden Prairie home are on hold. It's disappointing, Sailer said, but not a shock: After graduating from high school in 2020, she's no stranger to derailed plans. 'It's just very interesting how every time I graduate, it's a new challenge ahead,' she said. Business schools nationwide were among the first to see the labor market shift in early 2023 as tech industry cuts bled into other sectors, said Maggie Tomas, Business Career Center executive director at Carlson. Tariffs and stock market volatility have only added to the uncertainty, she said. In 2022, when workers had their pick of jobs, 98% of full-time Carlson MBA graduates had a job offer in a field related to their degree within three months of graduation, according to the school. That number, which Tomas said is usually 90% or higher, dropped to 89% in 2023 and 83% in 2024. Part of the challenge, she said, is recent graduates are now competing with more experienced workers who are re-entering the market amid layoffs and hiring freezes. 'There are very few companies that are saying, 'We're no longer going to recruit this year,' ' Tomas said. 'They're still hiring; they're just hiring less.' After doing a lot of hiring in 2021 and 2022, Securian Financial in St. Paul is prioritizing internal hires, said Human Resources Director Leah Henrikson. Many entry-level roles have gone to current employees looking for a change, she said. 'We are still looking externally, it's just the folks that we are looking for externally tend … to fulfill a specific skill gap we may have at that moment in time,' Henrikson said. The company still continues to cast a wide recruiting net, she said, knowing the job market ebbs and flows. Securian is among local employers partnering with Metro State University on an apprenticeship program that recently resulted in a job offer for one participant and application opportunities for two others. After working a variety of jobs, from his parents' farm to the North Dakota oil fields, Securian apprentice Leonard Lange decided to pursue a data science degree in 2021 when the market was hot. The 33-year-old from Bloomington, Minnesota, is optimistic about his job prospects but recognizes the landscape has shifted. 'If you're a student applying, you really do need to do some research on the company and tailor your resume a bit more than, I think, if it was three years ago,' he said. For Anderson and her spreadsheet, the post-graduation job search continues to be a waiting game. She's doing informational interviews, filling out applications and crossing her fingers for something in her field. At the moment, she is not technically unemployed: She has returned to the part-time job at Scheels sporting goods store where she's worked every summer since high school. ___ © 2025 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The Hill
4 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
The remote work revolution is here to stay
The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst for one of the most dramatic workplace transformations in modern history. Remote work, once a privilege limited to a small segment of the workforce, became a necessity for businesses to survive. In 2019, only 6.5 percent of workers in the private business sector primarily worked from home. By 2021, the percentage had surged, reshaping industries and raising questions about productivity in this new work environment. A study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics sheds light on the relationship between remote work and productivity. Analyzing 61 industries across the private sector, the study found a positive correlation between the rise in remote work and total factor productivity, even after accounting for pre-pandemic trends. This report confirms the findings of a comprehensive May 2025 report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office titled 'Telework: Private Sector Stakeholder and Expert Views,' which also presents compelling evidence that today's return-to-office mandates may be misguided. The findings make recent efforts to reverse remote work and get all staff back into the office — whether by corporate giants such as Amazon or the Trump administration — especially concerning, as they would thus undermine American competitiveness. The ALS American Community Survey shows that remote work participation grew across every major industry between 2019 and 2021. This trend was particularly striking in four sectors: professional, scientific and technical services; information; finance and insurance; and management of companies and enterprises. In these industries, the percentage of remote workers increased by more than 20 points, from less than 17 percent in 2019 to more than 39 percent in 2021. By 2022, even after the lifting of social distancing measures, remote work participation in these industries remained above 33 percent. At a granular level, some industries saw even more dramatic changes. In sectors such as computer systems design, data processing and publishing, between 50.2 percent and 62.5 percent of workers were remote in 2021, compared to just 15–20 percent in 2019. Over 40 percent of workers in securities, funds management and scientific services also transitioned to remote work. By 2022, the top industries retained high remote work participation, with more than 46 percent of their workforce continuing to work from home. Across all 61 industries studied, 44 had more than 10 percent of their workforce working remotely in 2021, underscoring the widespread nature of this shift. One of the key measures in the study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is total factor productivity, which evaluates how efficiently labor, capital and other inputs are used to produce output. From 2019 to 2021, a 1 percent increase in remote work participation was associated with a 0.08 percent rise in total factor productivity growth. This relationship strengthened slightly in the 2019–2022 period, with a 0.09 percent increase observed. While the overall trend points to productivity gains, the impact varied significantly across industries. Funds management and other financial services saw a 10 percent increase in total factor productivity during the pandemic, for example, compared to a slight decline pre-pandemic. Conversely, some industries with lower remote work participation did not experience the same benefits. The study also found that industries with the largest increases in remote work tended to outperform others in terms of productivity growth. From 2019 to 2022, the average industry-level increase in remote work participation was 11.8 percent, contributing to a 1.1 percent rise in total factor productivity. For industries such as computer systems design and data processing, output increased significantly faster than labor input, showcasing efficiency improvements. In other sectors, such as broadcasting and telecommunications, output rose while labor input either stagnated or declined. This trend illustrates how remote work allowed industries to do more with less, further driving productivity gains. The reasons for this positive association include cost savings and operational efficiencies. Remote work allowed businesses to cut costs in several areas. Many businesses downsized their office footprints, reducing overhead expenses. Reduced on-site workforce meant lower energy and maintenance costs for facilities. Lower turnover due to higher job satisfaction reduced the need for frequent hiring, saving firms additional costs. A notable example comes from industries such as broadcasting and telecommunications, where businesses cut unit office building costs by more than 20 percent. Across the board, a 1 percent increase in remote work participation corresponded to a 0.4 percent decline in unit office building costs. Despite the productivity gains associated with remote work, these benefits were not reflected in higher hourly compensation for employees. The BLS study found no statistically significant relationship between increased remote work and real hourly pay. This disconnect suggests that businesses reaped most of the financial rewards from enhanced productivity. However, workers experienced indirect benefits, such as avoiding lengthy commutes, saving both time and money. The rise in remote work also influenced nonlabor costs across industries. The study observed a significant decline in unit capital, energy, material and service costs as remote work participation increased. These reductions ranged from 0.2 to 0.4 percent, with the strongest impact seen in industries with substantial remote work adoption. Remote work has proven to be a game-changer for productivity. As industries continue to adapt to this new normal, the role of remote work in shaping productivity, cost structures and employee satisfaction will remain a critical area of focus. The question now is not whether remote work is here to stay, but how organizations can optimize its benefits for both businesses and employees. Gleb Tsipursky, Ph.D., serves as the CEO of the hybrid work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts and authored the best-seller 'Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams.'
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Gardeners on ICE raids: ‘People are afraid, but they still have to work'
They're known as the 'mow and blow' guys — the legion of predominately Latino gardeners driving pickup trucks and trailers bristling with lawn mowers, weed whackers and other yard-care equipment as they tend the yards of Southern California's suburban neighborhoods. But Daniel, a gardener who has lived undocumented in the U.S. for 20 years, doesn't think of himself that way. He does a lot more for his clients — trimming plants, fertilizing and weeding too. In fact, some of his clients have only tiny lawns, or no lawns at all these days, but they still need his services. And he still needs to work, despite immigration raids taking place in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties; the latter is where he has run his yard-care business for 11 years. Reflecting on his precarious position, he quieted his leaf blower and took off his sunglasses, giving only his first name for safety's sake. 'These times are really hard and everybody is afraid,' he said, referring to Latinos broadly — regardless of immigration status. 'It's really not normal, and we're always being careful, but you know, we need to work. We need to pay our bills because the bills are always coming and they don't stop.' On this June morning, his 15-year-old daughter joined him on his rounds through a Ventura neighborhood. She and her sisters — 10 and 18 — were born in the United States, but her parents were born in Mexico. The daughter was friendly with a welcoming smile, but when the discussion turned to whether she and her family have discussed what will happen if her parents are detained by immigration, she became as serious as her father. Criticisms about immigrants, worry about her parents' status — 'that's always been part of our experience, but now it's much worse,' she said quietly. 'It feels like a lack of empathy.' An estimated 1.2 million people work in landscaping and groundskeeping in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and in California, 88% of those workers are Latino and 68% are immigrants, according to a 2024 report by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank. How many of those immigrants are undocumented is unclear. President Trump promised during his campaign that he would crack down on illegal immigration, and five months into his term, immigration raids have escalated around so-called sanctuary cities in the Greater Los Angeles area, including agricultural areas such as Ventura and Oxnard. Earlier that morning, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had been spotted around Ventura and in the Ventura Police Department's front parking lot. The police department posted on social media that its officers were not involved, declaring on Instagram: 'Our commitment: Safety for all regardless of status.' Meanwhile, the Ventura College Foundation canceled its popular Weekend Marketplace, which draws 2,000 to 5,000 mostly Latino vendors and customers every weekend to the college's parking lot, due to concerns about ICE activity, according to a recorded message on its phone. Less than three miles away from the police parking lot, a landscape crew of five Latinos was working in a front yard, building an intricate walkway from multi-shaped pavers. The boss said he was pretty sure his workers had their papers, but no one wanted to talk because even citizens who are Latino were getting swept up in enforcement actions. 'People are afraid, but they still have to work,' he said. 'So we come to work and see what happens.' A few miles away, a Latino landscaper with a shaggy salt-and-pepper beard waited in his truck while his crew loaded wheelbarrows and other equipment outside a newly landscaped hillside home with a sweeping view of the Ventura coast. He came to the U.S. from Mexico 30 years ago, he said, and has been working in landscaping in Ventura for 25 years. He's single, works with family members and 'up until two weeks ago, I had no worry about anything,' he said. 'Now it [detention] is something you worry about every day.' He'd planned to gas up his truck that morning but drove past the station when he saw 'law enforcement' vehicles at the pumps, because he was afraid they were ICE officials. 'I took some precautions,' he said. 'They haven't come up here yet; they've just been on the main streets. But I pay taxes every year. I work. As long as we are here working and contributing ...,' he trailed off and shook his head. Daniel came to the U.S from Mexico some 20 years ago, he said. 'Things were so hard in Mexico everybody was jumping [to the U.S.] looking for a better life.' At first he worked every job he could find, roofing, building homes and working in a machine shop until 2014, 'when I see this opportunity [to be a gardener] and I take it.' Now, he works five days a week, he said, visiting eight to 10 yards a day and charging his clients, on average, about $150 a month. His only advertising is word of mouth. If he and his wife are detained, Daniel said, they have family nearby who could help his daughters or 'maybe we could take the girls to Mexico, but they want to be here and stay in school.' Their eldest, he said, is studying to become an anesthesiologist at a nearby university. His daughters are hard workers, 'good kids,' so leaving would affect them 'really bad.' He glanced at his 15-year-old, who wants to be an orthodontist, and was listening intently. 'I'm always looking for a better life,' he said, 'but when you have a family, what we think about most is the kids. I think this is the point for all the parents — we have our kids here so absolutely they have a better life than us.' The fear and frustration are prevalent throughout the horticulture world. Terremoto Landscape, a landscaping firm with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, posted information about immigrant rights prominently on its website and on Instagram. 'Landscape construction, maintenance and the entire labor engine of California would not be possible without immigrant labor,' said the Instagram post, which was accompanied by multiple photos of landscape workers with their faces covered by black boxes. 'But more importantly than that, immigrants are our friends, family and neighbors — our communities and lives are infinitely better for their presence in Los Angeles, the Bay Area and across America. The actions of ICE and the National Guard — aided and abetted by the LAPD — over the last few days have made clear the xenophobic, vile and violent aims and obvious mal-intent of the current administration.' The principals of the company declined to be interviewed, writing in a text that they want to be sensitive to nongovernmental organizations supporting immigrant communities. Independent gardening work has long attracted people excluded from other jobs, said landscape contractor Mike Garcia, owner of Enviroscape LA in Redondo Beach. After World War II, for instance, many Japanese Americans who had been held in incarceration camps during the war moved into gardening work because 'no one would hire them for other jobs,' he said. There were so many Japanese gardeners around L.A. in the 1950s that the California Landscape Contractors Assn. created a special 'Pacific Coast chapter for members of Asian heritage.' Membership waned over the years as Japanese families moved away from gardening and the chapter was recently disbanded, said Garcia, who sits on the board of the association's Los Angeles/San Gabriel Valley chapter. As Japanese gardeners pulled away from the field, Latino immigrants filled the void, Garcia said. 'If you're new to this country, a Latino looking for a better life and you can't find a job because you don't have any papers, you can pick up a lawnmower and start mowing lawns,' said Garcia. 'Latinos who couldn't speak English could still mow a lawn and write out an invoice, and they eventually took over the gardening trade.' Many Latino immigrants have to go into debt to travel to the U.S., so they feel compelled to find work quickly, said Manuel Vicente, director and producer of Radio Jornalera, the digital communication arm of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which provides information, support and recognition to immigrant workers who have limited options for work. Gardeners and landscapers are in high demand around L.A., he said, and the work doesn't require advertising or even English fluency. 'They see it as an opportunity and they're proud of the work they do,' Vicente said. 'You can see when there's a yard nobody is taking care of, and the workers come and convert that yard into something beautiful, that's gratifying for them.' And good work helps drum up more business. 'In Spanish we have a saying, 'El sol sale para todos,' or the sun rises for everybody. It means everybody has the opportunity to take a job,' Vicente said. 'Obviously there are certain jobs some people are not willing to do ... because of the wages or the difficulty, and others who are willing to take it. I don't see that as stealing jobs. For many immigrants it's the only place where they can work to make a living and survive.' Vicente helped the National Day Laborer Organizing Network start Radio Jornalera in Pasadena in 2019 during Trump's first term to help Spanish-speaking immigrants understand their rights. 'I'm a proud migrant, and I think we should change the narrative,' Vicente said. 'People think everything wrong with this country is because of migrants, and that's not true. I think migrants are part of the solution for this country and why California has one of the biggest economies in the world.' Immigrants like Daniel are working and sending their children to college, Vicente said. 'They came for a better life and they're building a better nation here, but they're also sending money to their families in their former country, so they're building two nations. We should recognize that.' The ICE raids happening now feel like racial persecution, he said. 'We are aware that they've already stopped multiple citizens, people who were born here, because they are brown and fit the profile, so I think no one is safe. Everyone who looks Latino — and I don't know what that is in that profile, but maybe it's just a brown person — so everybody in our Black and brown communities is under attack.' Over the weekend, Trump said he had asked ICE to stop raids at big farms and hotels, but on Sunday he announced plans to expand immigration enforcement actions in major 'Democrat-controlled' cities, including Los Angeles. It's hard for independent gardeners such as Daniel to do their work unnoticed. Their trucks and trailers visibly carry the tools of their trade. But the work is waiting, as are their bills. What's most galling, Vicente said, is that 'the people who don't want us here are benefactors of our work. Maybe we take care of their parents or their children; cook their food or clean their houses, do their yards or build their homes. They want our labor, but they don't want to recognize our humanity.'
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cost of President Trump's tariffs hits home, as several consumer goods and services surge to record highs
President Donald Trump's trade war is affecting Americans from the grocery store to electric bills, with the cost of bananas, ground beef and electricity surging to all-time highs, according to the latest data from the Consumer Price Index. Major U.S. retailers have announced price hikes as a result of tariffs, and the cost of a handful of everyday goods and services has increased by 5% to 10% since Trump took office. But not all consumer products are trending up. Since December, the average nationwide cost of bread, milk and tomatoes has dropped, and the price of chicken and oranges has stayed much the same with the change of administrations. The Tribune is tracking 11 everyday costs for Americans — eggs, milk, bread, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, chicken, ground beef, gasoline, electricity and natural gas — and how they are changing, or not, during Trump's second term. This tracker is updated monthly using CPI data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Egg prices dropped for a second straight month in May, falling 57 cents from March's record high. According to the latest data, the average cost of a dozen large Grade A eggs is $4.55 nationwide — tumbling below the $5 mark for the first time since January. The decline in egg prices is likely due to a decrease in bird flu cases in commercial and backyard flocks since the start of the year. In the first two months of 2025, 12.6 to 23.2 million birds were affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In March, that number was 2.1 million, and as of April, the virus was detected in only 1 million U.S. birds. Though still significantly lower than the number reported in January and February, cases surged again in May, with 5.2 million birds affected — the vast majority concentrated in three commercial flocks in Arizona. This uptick in cases could indicate another small jump in prices during the summer months. Currently, the cost of eggs is about 9.6% higher than before Trump took office. It's not just poultry flocks and wild birds that have been affected by bird flu. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus has been reported in dairy cows since March 2024, and just last month, there were 24 new confirmed cases at dairy farms in Idaho, Texas and Arizona. But while avian flu cases are ticking up again in poultry, they're declining in cattle, with the number of newly infected dairy cows just half of that reported in April. As a result, the cost of milk is down month-over-month, but a look at the year-over-year change is a bit different: Prices are up more than 4%. As of May, a gallon of fresh, fortified whole milk would set you back about $4.02. As of May, white bread cost $1.88 per pound. That price is slightly lower than it was when Trump started his second term and about 10 cents less than it was 12 months ago. Shoppers can expect to pay more for their next bunch of bananas. The staple fruit cost a record-breaking $0.66 per pound in May. The price jumped 2 cents compared with April — the single-biggest month-over-month increase going back to January 2021. This sudden spike is likely due to Trump's trade war, with tariffs levied against the country's top banana importers like Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico. Orange prices are up 5% from the previous month. This change, however, likely has little to do with the current administration. Like many citrus fruits, the cost of oranges is heavily tied to the harvesting season. As we exit orange season, supplies will decrease, coinciding with an increase in demand, thus triggering higher prices. This is standard for the fruit market, with oranges cheapest in the winter months, then increasing in cost throughout the late spring and summer and eventually peaking in September or October each year. Currently, the average price per pound for navel oranges is $1.56 nationwide. Though perhaps not the first thing you think of when you hear the term 'staple food,' tomatoes are an essential ingredient in all kinds of dishes, from pasta and pizza, to soups, salads and BLT sandwiches. In May, the average price of field-grown tomatoes was approximately $1.71 per pound. That cost is about 8 cents lower than it was in April and down roughly 17% since Trump took power. This decrease, however, is largely due to the growing season. Like oranges, tomato prices vary depending on the time of year, rising in the fall, peaking in the early winter months and then plummeting in the spring. Still, prices are down a little more than 8% from this time last year. Chicken is another consumer product that's seen a price spike as a result of bird flu — though not nearly as drastically as eggs. One reason? Significantly more egg-laying hens have been culled than chickens raised for meat. The national average crested above $2 per pound for fresh, whole chicken for the first time last year and hit a record high of $2.08 in November. Since then, the average price has been roughly the same. According to May CPI figures, chicken is $2.06 per pound. Ground beef prices continue to trend up, up and up. For the fourth-consecutive month, the cost of beef hit an all-time high, with the average price of 100% ground beef chuck now $6.02 per pound. The rising cost can be attributed to a number of factors. In addition to several ground beef recalls reported in recent months, the U.S. cattle inventory is at a 25-year low, and severe drought in parts of the country has further reduced the feed supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More recently, in trade talks with the U.S., the United Kingdom agreed to buy more American beef, a deal that the president says will lead to greater exports. But as China and the European Union's tariffs on beef and other U.S. farm exports remain, this may not be the last time we see record prices this year. Perhaps 2025 is the year to give vegetarianism a try? In May, the average price of electricity nationwide was 18 cents per kilowatt-hour. That average has held more or less the same since this time last year, with the typical month-over-month changes registering at less than a fraction of a cent. Even so, the current cost of electricity is the highest on record — going back more than 45 years. The price at the pump fell slightly month-over-month — dropping 2 cents from April to May. At $3.31 per gallon of regular unleaded, gasoline costs about 5% more than it did during the last month of the administration of President Joe Biden. Year-over-year, however, prices have declined by roughly 12%. In Chicago, gas is about 11 cents higher than the nationwide average, sitting at $3.42 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The cost of piped utility gas, or natural gas, saw no change month-over-month, averaging at $1.63 per therm. The price is holding at a two-year high and is up nearly 7% under the Trump administration.
