If you graduated in the last year or two with a computer science, IT, or related degree and you're still searching, the national data confirms what it feels like: this is a genuinely difficult year to break in. The good news is that where you target your search matters, and Chicago's tech economy has specific characteristics that work in a new grad's favor if you know how to position for them.

The national numbers, in plain terms

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's research on the labor market for recent college graduates put the unemployment rate for recent grads at 5.6% as of its Q2 2026 update, with underemployment — working in a job that doesn't require a college degree — at 42%. Earlier in the year, that same 5.6% figure (as of March 2026) was described as one of the highest levels in a decade outside of the pandemic-era spike, according to CNBC's reporting on New York Fed data.

There's a real AI dimension to this too. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that 35% of entry-level job postings now list AI skills as a requirement, and recruiting platform Handshake found full-time postings mentioning AI grew to a 4.2% share of listings for the Class of 2026, nearly double the prior year.

It's not all discouraging, though. ZipRecruiter's Annual Grad Report found that 77.2% of recent grads secured a position within three months of searching, up from 63.3% in the prior year's report — and NACE itself projected employer hiring for the Class of 2026 to rise 5.6% year-over-year. The market is tight, but it is not closed, and the outcome depends heavily on how targeted and current your search strategy is.

Why Chicago specifically is a strong bet

Chicago doesn't have the tightest tech-talent competition of the coastal hubs, but it has something arguably more useful for a new grad: a genuinely diversified base of employers who need tech talent layered on top of long-established industries, rather than one or two dominant employers you're competing for against everyone else in the country.

The city's tech identity runs through fintech and trading technology (Cboe Global Markets, Discover Financial Services), healthtech and applied AI (Tempus AI), enterprise and public-safety software (Motorola Solutions), and logistics-adjacent tech (Grubhub) — on top of a broader base of finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics companies that all need IT and software talent even though tech isn't their headline industry. That spread means more entry points for a new grad than a single-industry market offers, and a lower cost of living than the coasts stretches an entry-level salary further while you build experience.

On the skills side, CompTIA's State of the Tech Workforce 2026 report found data scientist and analyst roles growing 420% faster than the national employment growth rate, cybersecurity roles growing 346% faster, and software developer roles growing 188% faster — with a median tech salary of $112,805 across all tracked occupations, more than double the median wage across all U.S. sectors. Those are exactly the skill categories Chicago's finance and healthtech employers are hiring for.

A CS degree alone isn't the differentiator it used to be. With entry-level AI-skill requirements climbing and competition up, the myth that a degree by itself should open doors is doing more harm than good right now. What actually moves a new grad's application forward is demonstrated, applied work: a portfolio project, a contribution, a certification you can speak to in an interview. Hiring managers screening hundreds of similar resumes are looking for evidence, not credentials alone.

NACE Class of 2026 recruiting data; CompTIA State of the Tech Workforce 2026

What "42% underemployed" actually means for your strategy

The New York Fed's underemployment figure counts grads working in jobs that don't typically require a college degree at all — not people in adjacent-but-not-ideal tech roles. That distinction matters, because it means a meaningful share of the "underemployed" number is grads who took the first available job rather than holding out for a targeted search, likely because they ran out of runway or didn't have a strategy for narrowing the field. The lesson isn't "don't take a bridge job if you need one." It's that a scattershot, apply-to-everything approach is a documented path to landing outside your field entirely, while a targeted approach aimed at a specific regional industry cluster — like Chicago's fintech and healthtech base — gives you a narrower, more winnable set of employers to actually break through with.

A practical positioning plan

  • Build two or three portfolio projects in the stacks Chicago employers actually hire for — data/analytics tooling for the fintech and healthtech employers, or cloud and security fundamentals for the broader enterprise base. A project you can walk through in an interview outweighs a longer skills list on paper.
  • Target Chicago's actual industry mix directly. Applying broadly to "tech companies" nationally puts you in the widest possible applicant pool. Applying to the fintech, healthtech, and logistics employers that make up Chicago's tech base means competing in a more specific, more winnable lane.
  • Get an entry-level certification that signals applied skill, not just coursework — cloud, data, or security fundamentals are all reasonable starting points given where the growth is concentrated.
  • Make sure your resume is built to parse cleanly and reads well once a person opens it — formatting mistakes cost new grads interviews they were otherwise qualified for.
  • Use referral paths where you have them. With hundreds of applicants per entry-level posting, a warm introduction is disproportionately valuable right now.
  • Don't assume you need to relocate before you start applying. Chicago's tech employers hire out of a national and regional talent pool, and a placement process built around remote consultation and interview prep can get you in front of them before you've moved.

For a closer look at what Chicago's local tech market looks like right now, including specific employers and industries hiring, see our Chicago market snapshot. If you want help building the resume, portfolio story, and interview prep to go after it, that's what our placement services are built for — packages and pricing are on the pricing page.