Nothing would improve America’s talent development system more than an internship for every college student. An internship during college may be even more important than the degree itself. Students who complete an internship double their odds of getting a good job upon graduation and being engaged in their work across their lifetime. Employers aren’t always clear about the skills they look for in a job candidate, but they are clear about what they value most in a college graduate: the kind of experience gained through an internship. And given that ‘getting a good job’ is the top reason Americans pursue a degree, providing internship opportunities for students should be our top priority.
The problem is the supply of internships falls far short of demand. Last year 8.2 million students sought internships and only 3.6 million were successful. What would it take to close this 4.6 million internship gap? Not much actually. At our current internship supply, U.S. employers hit a rate of 2.2% internships-to-total-jobs (163 million paid jobs to 3.6 million internships). To close the 4.6 million internships gap, U.S. employers would need to offer internships at a rate of 5% of total jobs. Compared to the many hard things we have done before as a country, filling this internship gap is an ‘easy button.’
I can hear the employer excuses already: “Internships cost money” and “Internships take a lot of time and energy to manage.” Sure. But relative to the alternative — constant complaints about the work readiness of college graduates and a real threat of running out of quality talent for jobs necessary to grow — the cost, time, and energy of offering more internships pales in comparison. I can hear the college and university complaints too: “our career office is short staffed,” “we can’t offer academic credit for internships,” or – and this is one I’ve heard far too many times from faculty – “my job isn’t to help students get a job.” Sure. But at a time when Americans doubt the value of a degree more than ever, these excuses can pave the way to irrelevance.
It’s time we make the excuses inexcusable. And that starts simply and powerfully with enlightened leadership. Enlightened CEOs, presidents and executive directors of businesses, non-profits and government agencies alike can change talent development pipelines nearly overnight. Take a count of the total number of jobs your organization employs and the total number of internships you offer on an annual basis. If the internship-to-total-jobs percentage falls below 5%, commit to offering more internships until you reach that goal.
Let’s put this 5% internship pledge into financial perspective. Assuming that the average internship lasts 8 weeks (or the equivalent of 320 hours) at an average pay of $14.50 an hour (double the federal minimum wage) it would cost $38 Billion to fully fund internships for every college student in America who wants one (at the current demand of 8.2 million internships). Employers are already covering nearly half of this demand (44% to be exact – 3.6 out of 8.2). A federal policy providing for a dollar-for-dollar match to cover the cost of paid internships could provide sufficient incentive to employers to cover the gap. At full supply of 8.2 million internships at double the federal minimum wage – a 1:1 federal match would amount to $19 Billion. A major fix to America’s talent development pipeline at a cost of less than .3% of the federal budget.
(Comparatively, total federal funding for Pell Grants in 2024 was approximately $34 Billion. And the U.S. has averaged $17.6 Billion in annual farm subsidies from 1933 to 2024.)
The average employer spends $4,700 per new hire in recruiting costs alone. In comparison, the average cost of an internship in the hypothetical above (320 hours and $14.50 an hour) amounts to $4,640. Enlightened employers investing in internships get much better returns. On average, employers extended full-time offers to 72% of students doing in-person internships. Meanwhile, the average applicant-to-hire ratio for employers nationally in 2025 was .5%. This means employers’ internship-to-hire rate is 144x better than their applicant-to-hire rate – and at a similar cost per hire ($4,700 for the cost of recruitment and $4,640 for the cost of an internship). We have just entered no-brainer territory here, folks.
This country has done many hard things before. Landing on the moon: hard. Internships for every student: easy. Only 13% of Americans and 11% of C-level executives strongly agree college graduates are well prepared for success in the workplace. Nothing prepares graduates better than an internship. And to provide an internship for every college student, to fill this gap, all that’s needed is for every employer to hit a 5% internship-to-total-jobs rate. Our talent moonshot, as it turns out, is pretty easy to achieve.