""When you graduate, whether it's high school, or community college, or college, you need the skills to get the job," Dimon said in a recent interview with CNN. "It's not enough anymore to say 'I can work hard.' In the old days, you could be in 10th grade, go get a factory in Detroit, and eventually you could afford a family, a home, a car, and that may not be true anymore.""
"Per data from the National Association of Realtors, in 2022, its housing affordability index stood at 108, with a value of 100 representing a family with the median income having exactly enough income to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home. By 2025, this had dropped to 97.4, meaning the average American family trying to buy their first home doesn't have the income to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home."
"Likewise, childcare costs have rocketed compared to a few decades ago. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis charting tuition, school fees and childcare across an average of U.S. cities has increased from an index of 100 in 1983 to 897 by September 2025. In the face of increased costs of living, younger workers now graduating and entering the workforce are more concerned than their older counterparts about the threat of artificial intelligence."
Graduates need job-ready skills rather than relying on hard work alone. Lower-skilled jobs that once supported middle-class life increasingly fail to deliver the same outcomes. The housing affordability index fell from 108 in 2022 to 97.4 by 2025, leaving many first-time buyers without sufficient income to qualify for median-priced mortgages. Childcare, tuition, and school fees climbed from an index of 100 in 1983 to 897 by September 2025. Younger workers are more worried about artificial intelligence, with nearly one in five Gen Z workers reporting deep concern that AI could put them out of work within two years.
Read at Fortune
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