It hasn’t been the easiest year to land a job, and in 2026, the employment landscape will likely remain just as volatile. Managers will be grappling with how to deploy AI in their businesses and what skills they really need on the team to bring about efficiencies. Companies will also be wrangling with policy headwinds such as tariffs and the normalization of the base rate, as well as how consumer spending will hold up through the rest of the year.
So far, it’s been younger workers who have struggled the most. According to a November note from Oxford Economics, Gen Z job seekers—currently aged 13 to 28—are facing multiple barriers to landing a role. With hiring tracking downward, unemployment has risen particularly fast among those with less experience, so while America’s overall unemployment rate has sat around 4%, those in the 16 to 19 age bracket are contending with a 14% rate, while 19 to 24-year-olds average around 9%.
Education is a significant factor in the job prospects of young people: Those who have a college degree face a fractionally lower unemployment rate at the time of writing (a little over 6%) than peers with a high school diploma or some level of college training. While debate is rife about whether college degrees are worth the financial burden, it’s evident that employers want to hire people who have demonstrated a commitment to learning.
Enter the trend of “microcredentials,” professional certificates that demonstrate a candidate is pursuing additional training or qualifications to support the roles they’re applying for. According to $1.3 billion learning platform Coursera, more than 90% of employers would rather hire a candidate with a microcredential on their CV than one without.
According to Coursera’s CEO, Greg Hart, the most popular programs on the site revolve around technology and, more specifically, AI. Particular professional certificates that stand out are two from Google: ‘Foundations of Data Science’ and an analytics program called ‘Data, Data, Everywhere.’ Also popular is Google’s project management certificate, as well as a ‘Foundations of Cybersecurity’ course.
The platform’s Jobs Skills report for 2025 found that employers’ priorities for applicants align with the skills individuals are developing: GenAI and HR technology are the most in-demand skills, followed by soft skills such as assertiveness and stakeholder communications.
While a cynic might argue that the CEO of an education platform would recommend learning as a way to get a foot on the career ladder, Hart’s take is shared by some of the world’s most famous CEOs. JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, advises young people to ditch social media and “learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn” instead. Citadel CEO, Ken Griffin, advises to never stop learning, and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio advises youngsters to “realize that you know virtually nothing.”
“We do see a big spike in enrolments, typically, in January,” Hart tells Fortune in an exclusive interview. “It’s sort of like gym enrolments, people are thinking new year, new you, that kind of thing, and education is obviously one of the best ways to refashion oneself.”
Looking ahead, generative AI will continue to be the expertise of the moment: “It’s the most in-demand skill in our history as a company right now,” Hart says.
However, that’s not to the exclusion of soft skills and insight into other sectors. Healthcare, for instance, is experiencing an increase in interest. That aligns with the employment picture in the U.S., with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that the industry is one of the few sectors experiencing employment growth at present.
A lack of soft skills is also presenting barriers for young people to get hired. Last year, a report from technology education provider General Assembly found that fewer than half of workers (48%) and just 12% of mid-level executives think today’s entry-level workers are adequately prepared for the workforce. Among the key factors adding to the lack of confidence was that managers felt new workforce entrants lacked skills like communication, collaboration, and adaptability needed to succeed in their organizations.
“I do think that as people recognize that AI is enabling technology to do more and more of people’s jobs, the value of the human side of the equation actually increases,” added Hart. “Your functional knowledge in a world where AI is now doing more of the function, it’s not that it’s less important, it’s that it’s not as much of a distinguisher anymore.”
‘The courses I told my sons to take’
Hart practises what he preaches, revealing the courses he advises his two Gen Z sons, aged 22 and 21, to take.
Hart’s elder son is a finance major, and as such, “I told him to take Gen AI for finance. It’s highly convenient, it’s directly relevant, and after he finished that—he liked it—the next question was ‘What should I take next?’
“I said, ‘Go look through the Gen AI-related certifications and figure out which one you think is most relevant. I can tell you that being facile with data is going to be useful in your career, so look at how Gen AI can help you be really good at data analytics. What finance majors used to do is just spend time on spreadsheets, so figure out how you can use Gen AI to do that more effectively and put it on your resume.”
Hart’s younger son is a video game design major, and Gen AI was again recommended for capabilities like project management. But Hart added: “I said to him: ‘You need to develop as many skills related to game design as you possibly can, so not just your hard skills around coding or around multimedia, but how you knit all of that together. Project management, regardless of what you do in life, is a hugely effective and useful skill, so look at some of the things that are around project management, look at some of the things around entrepreneurship as well.”
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