While fresh-faced grads are throwing their hats in the ring for a job at the world’s biggest companies, they could have a good shot at small businesses ramping up hiring. And some of the jobs that they’re recruiting the most for could stand the test of time in the AI revolution.
About 974,000 recent graduates aged 20 to 24 will be hired at small businesses (firms with one to 49 employees) during the 2026 hiring season, from April through September, according to a recent report from payroll and benefits platform Gusto. It’s a small bump from last year’s onboarding of 962,000 early-career workers, but the market has still not fully returned to the COVID years of 2020 to 2022, when employers went on a hiring blitz. Still, there’s also been improvement with net new grad job creation; it’s crept up from a low of 60,000 in 2023 to over 100,000 in 2026.
