USAupdated 1h ago2 min read
Princeton Chemical Engineering PhD Jack Weis Unemployed After 2,300 Job Applications
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Princeton chemical engineering PhD Jack Weiss, 30, has applied to over 2,300 jobs without employment. The job search spans about two years with no stable position.
Weiss’s job search
Jack Weis, a 30-year-old Princeton chemical engineering PhD, applied for more than 2,300 jobs after graduating in 2024 and still had not found stable employment.
Weis graduated summa cum laude from Rice University before entering Princeton's doctoral program in 2018, and his ice-formation research was cited in connection with the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Weis told The Wall Street Journal that he widened his search beyond research positions to include software engineering, consulting and other jobs, but he still did not secure stable work.
Weis said he was considering law school while also working on developing a drone that uses AI to remove invasive weeds, after his temporary contract ended in mid-March.
Weis’s parents, both physicians, said they never imagined his employment struggle, and his mother Holly Carvers said, "It is truly unexpected. I don't know how to make sense of this situation,".
Numbers behind the squeeze
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York data cited by Seoul Economic Daily showed 5.6% unemployment among recent college graduates in the second quarter of 2026, while the underemployment rate among recent graduates reached 42%. Seoul Economic Daily said the underemployment rate meant many employed graduates were working in jobs that do not typically require a degree. Seoul Economic Daily also reported that the unemployment rate for recent graduates aged 22 to 27 rose 2.0 percentage points, from 3.6% in March 2019 to 5.6% in March this year.
The Wall Street Journal pattern described in Seoul Economic Daily framed the labor market as "low hiring and low firing," with employers reluctant to recruit and workers reluctant to leave existing jobs. Seoul Economic Daily added that a Gallup survey in August found that just 34% of Americans said now was a good time to find a quality job, and it said a Pew Research Center survey found more than 70% expected AI to reduce the total number of jobs.
AI, contracts, and next steps
Weis’s temporary work began in January 2026 when he joined AI startup Mercor on a temporary contract earning $70 an hour to train AI models, but the assignments dwindled and his contract ended in mid-March. The Wall Street Journal reporting described in the Asian sources said Weis had applied for research positions at pharmaceutical companies and postdoctoral posts at national laboratories, but most did not even respond. Seoul Economic Daily said Weiss applied for cooking and food preparation work at a company selling frozen crab cakes, but he never heard back.
Weis’s parents said they reviewed his applications and found nothing that might discourage employers, and his father John Weiss said, "I never dreamed this child would struggle." Weis told The Wall Street Journal that he wanted to step up and realize the value himself, saying, "If you believe something has true value, you have to step up and realize that value yourself,".