Approximately 84,000 international students will earn bachelor’s degrees from American universities in 2026, according to an analysis of National Center for Education Statistics data by the Economic Innovation Group.

As of 2025, about 306,000 international students were working toward their master’s degrees and 153,000 toward their doctorate degrees, according to the latest available data from Open Doors, an information resource sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Tens of thousands of these students are likely to hit the U.S. job market after earning their advanced degrees this spring.

Many new grads will enter a weakening labor market for young workers.

Job postings on Handshake, the early career site, were down 2% between July 2025 and March 2026 compared with the same period the year prior, and down 12% from 2019-2020, just before the Covid pandemic. The unemployment rate for recent college grads age 22 to 27 stood at 5.6%, according to New York Fed data for March 2026, compared with 3.1% for all college graduates and 4.2% for all workers.

Erica Ford, an international career development coach at Cornell University, says job hunting has gotten more difficult for students in recent years, including for the 300 international students she directly supports each year.

Students in STEM fields who would have been in high demand in previous years are now happy to get just one job offer, Ford says. Doctoral candidates are seeing a drop in research jobs and are pivoting to industry opportunities, and those going into the nonprofit sector are seeing their potential employers conduct layoffs, she adds.

The low-hire job market negatively affects students as a whole, but international students have to navigate additional barriers, such as temporary work authorizations, Ford says.

Whether due to immigration policy changes, the tighter labor market or a combination of multiple factors, data shows employers scaling back on opportunities for international grads: The share of full-time job postings offering visa sponsorship dropped from 10.9% in 2023 to just 2.6% in 2026, according to Handshake data provided to CNBC Make It, with the tech sector seeing the steepest decline.

Beyond the job market, international graduates face additional hurdles in a challenging immigration environment under the second Trump administration.

For example, application processing for some immigration benefits, including the OPT program, has been paused for people from countries that are part of President Donald Trump’s travel ban, Inside Higher Ed reports, leaving many F-1 visa holders in limbo and unable to begin working after graduation.

Students are ‘parallel planning’ as their ‘American dream ... is collapsing’

Many international students are responding to the job market and immigration hurdles by taking more time to find opportunities and “parallel planning,” Ford says.

They’re still pursuing opportunities in the U.S., she says, “but they’re also looking either back home or in a third country that’s not home and not the U.S.,” especially across Europe, Southeast Asia, Canada and Australia.

The U.S. issued 97,000 fewer F-1 visas to international students to study full-time in the U.S. for the 2025-26 academic year than for the previous year, a 36% drop, according to an analysis of U.S. Department of State data by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The loss of international grads in the U.S. could also have broader economic consequences.

Former international students from American universities have gone on to found one-quarter of U.S. startups valued at $1 billion or more, according to a 2022 analysis from nonprofit NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

The impact of the loss could be especially significant in STEM fields. Researchers say a one-third reduction in the number of international STEM graduates could lead to annual gross domestic product losses of $240 billion to $481 billion over the next decade, according to an October 2025 working paper published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. (Source: CNBC)

Story Date: May 25, 2026