Survey: Over half of Gen Z believes college is not worth it

Over half of Gen Z professionals say their college degrees were not worth the cost — and many believe artificial intelligence has already rendered them irrelevant. That’s according to a March 2025 survey by the Harris Poll on behalf of Indeed, which found that 51% of Gen Z degree holders now question the value of the very diplomas once seen as tickets to financial stability.

The survey, conducted among 772 U.S. adults with at least an associate degree, revealed a striking generational divide: just 20% of Baby Boomers and 41% of Millennials said their degrees weren’t worth the money. Additionally, 52% of all respondents reported graduating with student debt.

In a separate report by Indeed’s Hiring Lab in February last year, employers were also found to be scaling back education requirements. The report noted that only 17.8% of job listings required a four-year degree in January 2024, down from 20.4% in 2019. Meanwhile, 52% of postings included no formal education requirement at all.

The findings suggest that the economic return on a college education is no longer guaranteed. Tuition has risen between 32% and 45% over the past 20 years, even after adjusting for inflation. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the types of skills employers demand.

According to the Harris Poll, 30% of respondents said AI has made their degree obsolete — a figure that rises to 45% among Gen Z.

That perception is reflected in workforce behavior. The O’Reilly 2025 Technology Trends report in January recorded massive surges in AI-focused upskilling: prompt engineering training rose 456%, generative AI by 289% and AI principles by 386% in a single year.

For many Asian American families, higher education has long represented stability and upward mobility. First-generation students often shoulder both financial burdens and cultural expectations that a degree will secure long-term success. But as college credentials lose value, that foundation is being shaken.

A 2023 Pew Research Center study found that Asian American workers face the highest risk of AI-driven displacement, with 24% holding jobs highly exposed to automation — more than any other racial group.

In Indeed’s analysis of 47 occupational categories, sectors like software development, information design and project management — fields where many Asian Americans have built careers — are found to be among those reducing formal degree requirements.