U.S. consumer sentiment may have risen slightly in recent weeks, according to preliminary findings from the University of Michigan’s January Consumer Sentiment Survey released Friday. Its index rose to 54 from 52.9 last month. The improvement stems from “gradually receding” worries about the effects of tariffs, according to a statement, as year-ahead inflation expectations remained at their lowest level since January of last year.

But the uptick in positivity was tempered by declining faith in labor markets, particularly sensitive for high-income households, said Joanne Hsu, an economist who directs the university’s research surveys. As the job market’s “no-hire, no-fire” regime of the past year shows signs of wavering, pessimism is starting to creep into America’s upper echelons.

“While labor market expectations have essentially held steady for lower income consumers, higher income consumers have seen quite a bit of deterioration,” Hsu told Fortune. “Higher income, higher educated consumers are just showing increased worries about what’s happening in labor markets.”

While Hsu stressed that consumer confidence has declined across the board, and that the December results are only preliminary and will be updated with a final release later this month, earlier findings reported that consumer sentiment declined steeply among high earners throughout 2025. The survey sorts replies into three groups by income level, with the highest third of U.S. incomes sorted into the survey’s highest tercile. Between January and November last year, consumer sentiment among the lowest and middle terciles of American household income fell 29.8% and 27.6%, respectively, while the country’s highest third of earners suffered a steeper 32.1% decline.

Job security anxieties fuel declining sentiment

While most Americans dealt with inflation and rising prices for housing, food, and electricity over the past year, high earners, who are more likely to own stocks, may have been somewhat insulated. After the U.S. stock market hit record highs and posted double-digit gains, the top 10% of households walked away with trillions in new wealth created last year. The discrepancy led to what some economists termed a “K-shaped economy,” with appreciating assets benefiting wealthy consumers at the top, and mounting inflation and tariff headaches causing pain at the bottom.

In the University of Michigan’s November consumer sentiment report, Hsu noted that an outlier in declining sentiment could be found among consumers in the largest tercile of stock holdings, for whom optimism had risen 11% that month.

But that cheeriness might be starting to wear off. In December, nonfarm payrolls increased by only 50,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week. The U.S. economy added only 584,000 jobs last year, down from 2 million in 2024, and posted the weakest job growth year outside a recession since the early 2000s.

A weakening labor market spells trouble for white-collar workers. In these sectors, while unemployment hasn’t surged, hiring has essentially been frozen for the past year, especially for entry-level roles, as firms juggle worries over economic uncertainty and AI fears. Anxiety over job loss is rife among white-collar employees, and those concerns might now be manifesting in the data.

In the latest University of Michigan report, worries about job stability in the next five years and earning potential were “particularly elevated” among higher-income and higher-educated consumers, Hsu said. 

Other surveys have reported similar findings in recent weeks. Fears of joblessness in the next year were highest among the highest-earning individuals last summer, according to an August survey by the New York Federal Reserve. And last week, research firm Morning Consult reported a 10.5-point decline in sentiment among consumers earning more than $100,000 a year. 

“Consumer sentiment looks like it is starting to fall, particularly for high-income Americans who started to experience weaker labor-market conditions at the end of December,” John Leer, Morning Consult’s chief economist, said in an interview with MarketWatch.

Over the past three years, Teach for America (TFA), an education non-profit, experienced a 43% surge in incoming corps members (full-time teachers), according to the organization’s data, confirmed by Fortune. This school year, Teach For America welcomed 2,300 new corps members as the teacher shortage persists and Gen Z embraces the profession. It’s a rare bright spot in a job market increasingly short on entry-level roles. 

There has also been a renewed Gen Z interest in Teach for America jobs after years of waning applications; from 2013 to 2016, the organization faced declining recruitment into the program, according to Chalkbeat. In 2013, TFA received a record high of 57,226 candidates, but the figure dwindled by 23% three years later as the economy boomed. However, the recent flood of Gen Z workers into the education non-profit could reflect broader attitudes towards work and an uncertain labor market. Teach For America experienced a 40% surge in applications in 2009—in the wake of the U.S. financial crisis—according to the National Council on Teacher Quality. 

Teach for America’s chief growth and program officer, Whitney Petersmeyer, told The Guardian there was a connection between the applicant surge and job disruptions. Other than flocking to education careers because they’re “craving human connection and experiences that feel real,” Gen Zers are also looking for practical jobs. The young workers see teaching as a career path that is better shielded from what employment challenges lie ahead, and are “responding to the opportunity for purpose and responsibility at a time where many entry jobs feel uncertain or disconnected from impact,” Petersmeyer noted. 

“We know that members of Gen Z are eager to have real impact, and they’re seeking connection and community in their careers, and our applicants are finding those opportunities through TFA,” Petersmeyer tells Fortune. “They’re seeking exposure to careers where they can create real impact while gaining the skills to thrive in the emerging economy.”

Teach for America’s program: how to get in, salary, and benefits

The Teach for America corps is a full-time, paid opportunity for young educators to get their foot in the classroom door. The two-year leadership role funnels talent into positions at under-resourced K-12 schools—and allows hires to choose their placement across 40 U.S. locations. 

Salaries can range from $32,000 to $72,000, depending on the region, and benefits include health insurance, retirement benefits, a $3,000 to $6,500 summer training stipend, needs-based grants, and access to graduate school scholarships. In addition to the perks, Teach for America says it offers lifelong career support, including exclusive partnerships with top employers, scholarships, career accelerators, career coaching, and mentorship. 

There are only a few requirements to get into the program: a perfect opportunity for early-career Gen Zers with fairly blank resumes. At a minimum, talent must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university with a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5, and the organization says it has no preference for specific majors or backgrounds. Job-seekers also must be a U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, or EAD (Employment Authorization Document) holder. 

Despite having very few requirements, it’s still no cake walk to get into the program. Teach For America has boasted competitive acceptance rates over the years; in 2010, it accepted just 13% of 46,000 candidates, and in 2013, it hired only 14% of around 57,000 applicants.

Disillusioned Gen Zers are turning to education 

White-collar jobs aren’t as plentiful as they once were, as AI optimization and pandemic-era overhiring drag down the number of open roles. Last November, job openings fell to about 7.1 million, a sharp decline from October and nearly 900,000 positions lower than the year before. And across 2025 altogether, headcounts only grew by an average of 49,000 jobs per month—a steep drop from 168,000 monthly in 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

As the labor market lags and six-figure dreams have been dashed, Gen Zers are turning to fulfilling careers—and education makes the top of the list.

About 9 in 10 Gen Zers consider a sense of purpose important to their job satisfaction—even ranking it above pay—according to a 2025 report from Deloitte. And teaching can offer just that, including job security; the education sector is the fastest-growing industry in the U.K., according to a 2024 LinkedIn analysis. Roles including teachers, lecturers, and learning support assistants have particularly taken off as “being some of the most sought-after roles,” LinkedIn’s career expert Charlotte Davies told Fortune last year. 

It’s a welcome change as Gen Z high school students’ interest in studying education in college had been on the decline for around a decade, according to a 2024 study from SREB. Education has long been seen as an incredibly tough, low-paying profession, with 77% of teachers reporting that their job is frequently stressful, and 88% calling it overwhelming, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey. The career can be tough, and more than half of educators “would not advise a young person starting out today to become a teacher.” Yet the profession has exactly what Gen Z is looking for: purpose in their work. 

Despite the headaches and long days, around 67% of public and private school teachers feel a strong sense of purpose and hope when thinking about the future, according to a 2025 Morning Consult and EdChoice poll. And the profession is looking to hire—there were 41,920 unfilled teacher positions across 30 U.S. states in 2024, according to the Learning Policy Institute. Plus, at least 406,964 education positions were vacant or filled by teachers not fully certified for their assignments—about 1 in 8 of all teaching positions across America. 

Leila Hormozi, founder and CEO of Acquistion.com, said she learned her guiding principle for hiring from the Ritz-Carlton. Their philosophy is: “We don’t hire people who know how to make beds. We hire people that are good people,” she said in a video on Instagram to her 1.2 million followers.

“Our process was to hire the right people. Not just hire people but select people and then orient them, not just put them to work but orient them to our thinking,” said Ritz Carlton Hotel Company cofounder Horst Schulze, reflecting on how the global chain developed their high standard, in a 2019 interview with Chief Executive.

Hormozi says she echoes this philosophy: “I want to hire people who have the natural traits that I just need to give them the technical skills.” Hormozi cofounded Acquisition.com with her husband, Alex, in 2021. Before starting the private investment and advisory firm, Hormozi worked as personal trainer and launched fitness companies Gym Launch and Prestige Labs, and a software company ALAN. By 28, her net worth passed $100 million, she says. Acquisition.com now has a $200M+ portfolio and partners with companies to scale and grow business.  

“Your business is only as strong as the people you pick to lead it. The fastest way to destroy your business is to hire the wrong people.” Hormozi wrote in a caption on Instagram.

Some leaders “have it backwards,” she added. “People overvalue technical skills and undervalue social and emotional skills.” 

As AI masters technical skills used in administrative, human resources, finance, and logistics jobs, soft skills such as adaptability and creative and analytical thinking are growing in demand, according to research from LinkedIn. People with strong foundational skills, such as collaboration, adaptability, and basic math skills typically learn faster and acquire more complex skills over time, one 2025 Harvard study about about long-term performance and advancement shows. 

Other business leaders share Hormozi’s philosophy.

“My advice to people would be critical thinking, learn skills, learn your EQ [emotional quotient], learn how to be good in a meeting, how to communicate, how to write,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said last month. “You’ll have plenty of jobs.”  

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has also long advocated for empathy and emotional intelligence as foundational skills in the workplace. 

“IQ has a place, but it’s not the only thing that is needed in the world,” Nadella said in an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner in November. “And I’ve always felt at least as leaders, if you just have IQ without EQ, it’s just a waste of IQ.”