Jack Weis, 30, remained without steady work in October 2026 after sending more than 2,300 job applications, The Wall Street Journal reported, despite a Princeton doctorate in chemical engineering.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counted 1.9 million people who had been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer in September. They made up 27.1% of all unemployed people. The overall unemployment rate was 4.2%, while nonfarm payroll employment rose by 29,000. Those national figures do not explain the outcome of Weis’s applications or establish whether he was among the people counted.
Weis’s academic record includes a 2022 paper he co-authored on machine learning and ice formation. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the study in background material for the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics. Weis did not receive the prize. Princeton lists him among its doctoral research group’s alumni for 2019 through 2024.
The Journal reported that Weis applied for food preparation jobs, including one at a company that sells frozen crab cakes. His search also reached software positions and fellowship programs at national laboratories. These were applications, not jobs he held.
Paid work did come through a temporary contract training artificial intelligence systems, the Journal reported. The contract began in January 2026 at $70 an hour, but assignments became less frequent and it ended in mid-March. The Journal also reported that Weis moved back to his parents’ home after losing steady income. He was considering law school and developing a drone project aimed at invasive weeds.
Separate BLS figures show that U.S. employers recorded 5.2 million hires and 1.6 million layoffs and discharges in August, with both measures little changed from July. The agency is scheduled to release its October employment report on Nov. 6 at 8:30 a.m. ET.
