If a new prediction evolves into fact, many college students whose degrees will be conferred in the spring could face days, weeks, months or longer of anxiety or unfulfilled dreams, according to an article that was published in the Wall Street Journal last month.

Some people might shrug off that notion, reminding others that it is commonplace for uncertainties and anxieties to greet new graduates beginning this new chapter of their lives.

Of course, the level of uncertainty and anxiety will depend on students’ preparation for this new phase of their lives. Those who have engaged in the process of thinking ahead will have a better chance of avoiding what others might be feeling and enduring as they wade through confusing and conflicting moments and, possibly, not-so-well-thought-out advice from family members or friends, including, but not limited to, where to live and how to present oneself.

Call it all a time of growing up.

The Journal summed up the situation this way:

“Six months out from graduation season, more than half of 183 employers surveyed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers rate the job market for the Class of 2026 as poor or fair. That is the most pessimistic outlook since the first year of the pandemic, according to the survey, which is widely seen as an early signal of graduate hiring each year.

“A cooling job market is darkening that outlook.”

Although this year’s graduation season was less than what graduates had hoped for, the one ahead appears to be considerably worse. Meanwhile, more than 60% of 2026 graduates said they were pessimistic about their careers.

Overall, according to the Journal’s report, employers said they expect only a 1.6% increase in hiring for the Class of 2026.

Amid that will be the deeply troubling statements from companies like Verizon Communications, which said it would cut 15,000 jobs, and the plans of companies including United Parcel Service and Amazon.com, which said they would cut their worker rolls by thousands.

The following paragraph from the Journal’s report contains something alluded to earlier in this editorial — about the matter of thinking ahead.

“Companies say the uncertain economic outlook has pushed them to hire more conservatively, and many are giving priority to recruits with some experience as opposed to those fresh from college.”

That means that while many students were enjoying their summers and term breaks, others were setting themselves up for an easier job hunt after graduation by having a foot in the proverbial door, based on summer work experiences, especially with companies like those that they would consider working for, full time, after completing their studies.

That information is something to be kept in mind and/or pursued by students still with years of study remaining before graduation.

And then there is this troubling “aside” acknowledged by the Journal that is destined to have an increasingly bigger impact on workplaces — much bigger and more quickly than was considered possible even just a couple of years ago:

“More executives are also speaking openly about the potential of artificial intelligence to bring deep job cuts and take over more tasks that new graduates are traditionally tapped to perform.”

Graduates are America’s future, but “getting there” — attaining that status — seems destined to become much more challenging than it ever has been before.