The Inflation Trap: Why New Grads Feel Broke in 2025

An interactive look at pay, rent, and purchasing power for new graduates

Key Takeaway

• Higher pay does not always mean a better start.

• After costs, outcomes differ widely by role.

• Some careers lost ground despite stable salaries.

• Rent is the main source of early-career pressure.

• Income after costs matters more than salary alone.

Are you a parent helping a new graduate cover rent and daily expenses in New York City? Or a recent graduate wondering why a decent salary still doesn’t feel like enough?

Starting salaries today are much higher than they were ten years ago, yet many graduates feel more financial pressure, not less. Rent takes a larger share of income, everyday costs add up quickly, and “earning more” no longer guarantees a comfortable start.

This project looks beyond salary numbers to answer a simple question: does today’s starting pay actually support a reasonable standard of living? The goal is not to create anxiety, but to help students and families understand the trade-offs behind early-career choices in a high-cost city.

Interactive Dashboard

Try it yourself: pick a role, hover for details, and click the bar chart (or use the filters) to zoom in. In less than a minute, you’ll see which careers gained real buying power—and which fell behind inflation in NYC.

Key Insight

Career Choice Now Shapes Real Income Outcomes

Across roles, salary growth since 2015 has been uneven. Software engineering moved from being below junior data analyst pay in 2015 to the highest-paid role by 2025, with salaries above $120K and clear gains after inflation. Registered nursing shows the strongest real income growth, fully outpacing CPI despite being a non-technical role.

Sales and HR track similar paths, with salaries rising just slightly faster than inflation, resulting in modest real gains. Marketing shows the weakest outcome, with little change in real income after inflation.

Junior data analyst roles stand out in the opposite direction: pay was around $65K in 2015 and remains close to that level in 2025; adjusted for inflation, it would need to be near $95K to keep pace, indicating a clear loss in purchasing power. One possible explanation is that entry-level data skills alone are no longer scarce; their value increasingly depends on how well they are paired with industry-specific knowledge.

Housing Costs Hit Careers Differently

Rent takes up a large share of income for new graduates in New York City. In high-cost cities, rent taking more than about a third of income often leaves little room for savings or change. Based on the average studio rent across NYC ZIP codes, rent accounted for about 48% of income in 2015 and around 39% in 2025 overall.

Outcomes vary by role. Software engineers spend about 29% of income on rent in 2025, leaving a clear gap between housing costs and pay. Registered nurses spend about 32%, a sharp drop from 2015. Junior data analysts move in the opposite direction, with rent close to 50% of income as pay remains flat.

Housing costs do not change much across roles. Income does. As a result, some graduates gain room to save, while others lose it.

Recommendations

Read the Salary After Costs

Do not judge a starting job by salary alone. After rent and basic expenses, what matters is how much money is left each month. That remaining income is a better measure of early-career stability than the headline number.

Judge Roles by Hiring, Not Reputation

No role stays strong forever. Instead of relying on how a major or job is described, look at current job postings and pay trends. A role is more stable when companies are still hiring for it and wages continue to move.

Make Small Moves When a Role Slows Down

If pay growth in a role starts to stall, improvement does not require a full career change. Many people move forward by adding specific skills, shifting to related roles, or taking on work with clearer pay outcomes.For junior data analysts, this often means going beyond technical skills and building deeper knowledge in a specific industry, where data work is closer to real decisions. Early careers improve through a series of small moves, not one big decision.

Add a Second Income Stream When Possible

For some graduates, financial pressure eases faster with extra income. Short-term projects, part-time work, or side jobs can help cover costs and reduce stress while longer-term plans take shape.

A Final Thought

Effort still matters, but it no longer guarantees better living standards on its own. When costs rise faster than pay, outcomes depend on where effort is placed as much as how hard one works. Smart choices help effort turn into real progress.

Data Processing

For readers who want to verify the results, the section below outlines the data sources, cleaning rules, and inflation adjustment used in this dashboard.

Entry-level salaries

• 2015 salary data sourced from NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) benchmarks, representing typical entry-level pay in national wide.

• NYC 2015 salaries: Adjusted by a 1.3× multiplier (from the nationwide baseline) to reflect NYC pay levels.

• 2025 salary data collected through live scraping of entry-level job postings on Handshake

Data cleaning

• Removed postings with missing salary ranges

• Excluded extreme values likely driven by outliers or non-entry-level roles

• Standardized salaries to annual figures for consistency

Inflation

• Inflation calculated using BLS CPI data

• 2015 salaries adjusted by a 1.32× factor to express all values in 2025 dollars

Housing costs

• Rent estimates based on HUD 2015 SAFMR NYC benchmarks

• Used to calculate income remaining after rent

Role alignment

• Job titles grouped to reduce naming noise across years

• Comparison limited to comparable early-career roles