Education

Unfortunate Report for New Grads (and Their Parents): 1 in 2 Either Unemployed or Underemployed

Unfortunate Stat for New Grads (And Their Parents): 1 in 2 Either Unemployed or Severely Underemployed

(AP/The Blaze) — The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.

A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor’s degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs – waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example – and that’s confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor’s degrees.

While there’s strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder.  Median wages for those with bachelor’s degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers.  Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.

Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor’s degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.

“I don‘t even know what I’m looking for,” says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.

Initially hopeful that his college education would create opportunities, Bledsoe languished for three months before finally taking a job as a barista, a position he has held for the last two years. In the beginning he sent three or four resumes day. But, Bledsoe said, employers questioned his lack of experience or the practical worth of his major. Now he sends a resume once every two weeks or so.

Bledsoe, currently making just above minimum wage, says he got financial help from his parents to help pay off student loans. He is now mulling whether to go to graduate school, seeing few other options to advance his career. “There is not much out there, it seems,” he said.

His situation highlights a widening but little-discussed labor problem. Perhaps more than ever, the choices that young adults make earlier in life – level of schooling, academic field and training, where to attend college, how to pay for it – are having long-lasting financial impact.

“You can make more money on average if you go to college, but it’s not true for everybody,” says Harvard economist Richard Freeman, noting the growing risk of a debt bubble with total U.S. student loan debt surpassing $1 trillion. “If you‘re not sure what you’re going to be doing, it probably bodes well to take some job, if you can get one, and get a sense first of what you want from college.”

Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University who analyzed the numbers, said many people with a bachelor’s degree face a double whammy of rising tuition and poor job outcomes. “Simply put, we’re failing kids coming out of college,” he said, emphasizing that when it comes to jobs, a college major can make all the difference. “We’re going to need a lot better job growth and connections to the labor market, otherwise college debt will grow.”

By region, the Mountain West was most likely to have young college graduates jobless or underemployed – roughly 3 in 5. It was followed by the more rural southeastern U.S., including Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. The Pacific region, including Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, also was high on the list.

On the other end of the scale, the southern U.S., anchored by Texas, was most likely to have young college graduates in higher-skill jobs.

The figures are based on an analysis of 2011 Current Population Survey data by Northeastern University researchers and supplemented with material from Paul Harrington, an economist at Drexel University, and the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank. They rely on Labor Department assessments of the level of education required to do the job in 900-plus U.S. occupations, which were used to calculate the shares of young adults with bachelor’s degrees who were “underemployed.”

About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years. In 2000, the share was at a low of 41 percent, before the dot-com bust erased job gains for college graduates in the telecommunications and IT fields.

Out of the 1.5 million who languished in the job market, about half were underemployed, an increase from the previous year.

Broken down by occupation, young college graduates were heavily represented in jobs that require a high school diploma or less.

In the last year, they were more likely to be employed as waiters, waitresses, bartenders and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined (100,000 versus 90,000). There were more working in office-related jobs such as receptionist or payroll clerk than in all computer professional jobs (163,000 versus 100,000). More also were employed as cashiers, retail clerks and customer representatives than engineers (125,000 versus 80,000).

According to government projections released last month, only three of the 30 occupations with the largest projected number of job openings by 2020 will require a bachelor’s degree or higher to fill the position – teachers, college professors and accountants. Most job openings are in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving, jobs which aren’t easily replaced by computers.

College graduates who majored in zoology, anthropology, philosophy, art history and humanities were among the least likely to find jobs appropriate to their education level; those with nursing, teaching, accounting or computer science degrees were among the most likely.

In Nevada, where unemployment is the highest in the nation, Class of 2012 college seniors recently expressed feelings ranging from anxiety and fear to cautious optimism about what lies ahead.

With the state’s economy languishing in an extended housing bust, a lot of young graduates have shown up at job placement centers in tears. Many have been squeezed out of jobs by more experienced workers, job counselors said, and are now having to explain to prospective employers the time gaps in their resumes.

“It’s kind of scary,” said Cameron Bawden, 22, who is graduating from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in December with a business degree. His family has warned him for years about the job market, so he has been building his resume by working part time on the Las Vegas Strip as a food runner and doing a marketing internship with a local airline.

Bawden said his friends who have graduated are either unemployed or working along the Vegas Strip in service jobs that don’t require degrees. “There are so few jobs and it’s a small city,” he said. “It’s all about who you know.”

Any job gains are going mostly to workers at the top and bottom of the wage scale, at the expense of middle-income jobs commonly held by bachelor’s degree holders. By some studies, up to 95 percent of positions lost during the economic recovery occurred in middle-income occupations such as bank tellers, the type of job not expected to return in a more high-tech age.

David Neumark, an economist at the University of California-Irvine, said a bachelor‘s degree can have benefits that aren’t fully reflected in the government’s labor data. He said even for lower-skilled jobs such as waitress or cashier, employers tend to value bachelor’s degree-holders more highly than high-school graduates, paying them more for the same work and offering promotions.

In addition, U.S. workers increasingly may need to consider their position in a global economy, where they must compete with educated foreign-born residents for jobs. Longer-term government projections also may fail to consider “degree inflation,” a growing ubiquity of bachelor’s degrees that could make them more commonplace in lower-wage jobs but inadequate for higher-wage ones.

That future may be now for Kelman Edwards Jr., 24, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., who is waiting to see the returns on his college education.

After earning a biology degree last May, the only job he could find was as a construction worker for five months before he quit to focus on finding a job in his academic field. He applied for positions in laboratories but was told they were looking for people with specialized certifications.

“I thought that me having a biology degree was a gold ticket for me getting into places, but every other job wants you to have previous history in the field,” he said. Edwards, who has about $5,500 in student debt, recently met with a career counselor at Middle Tennessee State University. The counselor’s main advice: Pursue further education.

“Everyone is always telling you, `Go to college,’” Edwards said. “But when you graduate, it’s kind of an empty cliff.”

Comments (46)

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  • nuttyvet
    Posted on April 23, 2012 at 7:19am

    The kid in the story had a “creative writing” degree. That’s pretty much useless. It is a shame he didn’t have better guidance as to what majors are more competitive than others. I don’t blame him, he’s just a kid but the days of simply holding a Bachelors Degree to advance your career are over. Make yourself useful and marketable and everything falls into place.

    Report Post » nuttyvet  
  • tomloy
    Posted on April 23, 2012 at 6:18am

    Yeah, its tough all over. Companies are now wanting face to face interviews for contracts! I had one company upset when I turned down a face to face interview for a contract. It would have been a 9 hour drive! And they wouldn’t reimburse me for gas either. Hourly rates are way down. I’m a software engineer with 25 years of experience too. Luckily though I have enough saved to sit out this nonsense.

    Report Post »  
  • May Clark
    Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:54am

    While I agree, it is easier to get a job with an engineering or medical degree, I think many people are forgetting that actually there are thousands of people employed making a decent living who possess psychology or other liberal arts degrees. If they haven‘t been employed and aren’t currently employed, why hasn’t this been reported? This is not a war of degrees. It is a statement about corrupt governments and greedy business owners who sold millions of American jobs overseas. Why pick on people who don’t have a specific degree? Sixty years ago, there were still plenty of factory jobs which didn’t require a degree. I know many people with computer degrees plus experience who can’t find work. Take some time to check your local want ads. There are so many unemployed people that even the most basic entry level office jobs are asking for a degree (in any major) and three years office experience. They are doing this because companies are inundated with applications. The corrupt politicians want us all fighting amongst ourselves. We didn’t make the environment rules, the high corporate taxes or any other constricting laws which make it harder to do business in America. We need plans from our presidential candidates right now on how they are going to cut the government budget and drastically lower taxes in order to create an environment for job growth. Putting more people on the government payroll is not the answer and neither is criticizing someone for not becoming a scient

    Report Post »  
  • Kerstile
    Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:11am

    You can’t fix stupid. Sorry for the cliche, but what else can you call this “college degree madness”? The University system is broken. The soft course staff rules the day. The only way to fix this abomination is for the OPEN MARKET to be engaged. STOP student loans for worthless fields. TIE loans to the job market. No market for your course of study = NO LOAN. Make people pay, up front (no subsidy) for their worthless educations. Gosh, I’m mean. (chuckles)

    Report Post » Kerstile  
  • Warpath18
    Posted on April 23, 2012 at 3:29am

    I hate to say this, but my wife and I find ourselves in this situation. I’m a meber of the first generation who will do worse than my parents. It’s very disheartening. We pay our bills and live a good life, but we aren’t getting anywhere. They say that crime doesn’t pay, but working for a living doesn’t either. When you consider how many jobs have left this country, and how many more people have come to this country for work, then add in double dippers and the like, I wonder how the younger generation will make it. Wonder why they are pissed off now, older generations? Talk about entitlement. My father at least admits that his generation has runined the American dream for my generation.

    Report Post »  
    • May Clark
      Posted on April 23, 2012 at 9:19am

      I sympathize greatly with you and others in your age group. I know some wonderful young men who graduated college, secured a job and then lost it due to downsizing. Even though they have a degree and some years of experience, they are reduced to working in stores(really crummy, bad paying jobs) just to try to feed their kids. It is NOT their fault! And, what does anyone think is going to happen to all of troops when they return home to this job market? Shall we all mock them for their stupidity in signing up for military service? Presumably, most of them voted Republican, so we won’t be able to mock them for their voting habits.

      Report Post »  
  • waspanglosaxon
    Posted on April 23, 2012 at 1:30am

    ‘W’ got us into this economic malaise, but Obama hasn’t done anything to make it better. I think we need a revolving door on the Oval Office until someone comes along with the right economic key to make things right again.
    At this heartbreaking time in history, all both major party candidates are currently trying to do is see who can be the first to pander to the hispanic/illegal alien clique. Ron Paul, where are you? If you’re not on the GOP ticket, please, please, please run as a 3rd party candidate!

    Report Post » waspanglosaxon  
  • BIGWUN
    Posted on April 23, 2012 at 12:58am

    Please detail how many of these yet to be employed graduates got their degrees in psychology, sociology, history of women’s consciousness, philosophy and go ahead with including creative writing on the list.

    Don’t bother wasting time doing a survey among potential employers of such graduates with these and other such absolutely worthless degrees. There are ZERO such jobs! OK, to be fair, I do know of one occasion where a woman got a job with a history of woman’s consciousness PHD. Of course, it was at a lib university to teach history of women’s consciousness.

    Universities teach this pap for more and more dollars every year to justify their own worthless hides and to bring about the socialist paradise of Idiocracy. What an incredible scam!

    Report Post »  
  • SekndAmendment
    Posted on April 23, 2012 at 12:42am

    I’m 4 years into my 5 year engineering degree. I make $49K a year interning at a major defense contractor during the summers and doing design work for caterpillar during the school year. I already have two extremely competitive offers in different fields waiting for me. Unemployment is at a 10 year high? Look at the stupid @$$€$ that chose the liberal arts majors. Science and engineering degrees mean job security. Arts, English, and history mean, “do you want fries with that?” Kids need to sit down and think of all the jobs they would like to do, look at how much that person makes, what degree they had to earn, and how many positions nation wide currently exist for that job. They need to weigh all of that before picking a major. Communications, political science, psychology, and English majors are just a waste of time and money.

    Report Post »  
  • burnbabylon
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 11:49pm

    Stand-up Philosophers have a hard time finding work? That’s the History of the World, (part 2).

    Report Post »  
  • whatthecrazy
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 11:40pm

    Excuse me,Hello and we are shocked WHY?If i remember didn’t Oblowhard say he was going to fundamentally change our lives.WEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL isn’t THE CHANGE just fab………………

    Report Post »  
  • TheBurningTruth
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 11:28pm

    Part 2: Think back on how many high school kids take the higher math and science vs. those that take the minimum. Consider how many choose to not even finish high school (as if that were difficult) and how many working at McDonalds couldn’t even count change without an electronic cash register. Our fine Progressive Liberal educators have taught whole generations that they don’t need to achieve. Failure IS an option to those people simply because they can always justify stealing from those that put in the work to be successful.

    When success if punished and failure is rewarded, failure is what you get.

    Report Post » TheBurningTruth  
  • TheBurningTruth
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 11:28pm

    Part 1: Even college degrees don’t mean much anymore because too many of them are “junk degrees”. Just look at the line: “While there’s strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder. ” That says it all. Add in those with college admission preferences that didn’t earn the grade, and real-world experience counts for more and the diploma counts for less. Finally, don’t forget the professors that push students into minimally useful degrees to ensure their own six-figure positions are safe. Not really looking out for the students.

    Not to excuse President Marxist because he’s bent on destroying a self-reliant America, this has been a long time coming. As far back as the 70s when I was in engineering school, nearly half the class was Chinese. During my last 5 years of hiring in Silicon Valley for semiconductor design engineers, I estimate that roughly 40% were Indians, 40% were Chinese, 15% were from around the world, and at best 5% were Americans. I would often talk with the Chinese and Indians about why they were so successful. Being from a large homogenous country, there was no political advantage given to anyone, they were just another student. A certain number succeeded and a certain number failed and the only person that cared was YOU. You either EARNED success, or PAID for your failure. Of course, the successful ones came here and out-competed with out own pampered kiddies for those high-tech jobs.

    Report Post » TheBurningTruth  
  • tzion
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 11:21pm

    Hence the lie is revealed: a college degree does NOT guarantee a good job. I’m sorry but if you thought you could get a 5 or 6 figure job with a degree in fine arts or philosophy, you clearly weren’t planning ahead. If you choose to go to college you should have at least some idea of what you want to do and how to get there. When I was applying to college I selected locations that were ranked high in engineering. Those weren‘t the only factors I used to decide but every school that I even considered had to have that before I’d even decide whether to apply.

    Report Post »  
    • orionreplay6607
      Posted on April 23, 2012 at 6:32am

      Today is no different than it was in the past. The media is making this out like it’s a new thing in this new world. I graduated 20 years ago this spring. I was a BFA in graphics design. I did it because it was interesting and I never considered what life would be like, post-college. I had been in school all my life up to that point. My parents didn’t agree with my choice and I pursued it without their financial backing. It was my “big FU” to the old man. I’m going to do it anyway.

      At graduation there was no real work in graphics design. I could get interned, but at no pay. It was a viscous circle. No one would hire someone without experience, but to get experience you’d have to work for no pay for a period of time. I couldn’t do it. Especially now that the college loans were coming back to haunt me.

      I retreated home. I lived with my parents. For two years, I worked two and sometimes three jobs. I then joined the Navy to do it for one tour and make some better money. My father was retired Navy. Now 16+ years later, I still am in. I paid those college loans off after 12 years. I watch the enlisted men in my command striving to get their degrees and they take it so seriously. Back when I was 18 I took nothing seriously. Maybe I should have worked in the real world first a bit and then gone to college. School to school to school affects the brain and you actually expect to be given something.

      Report Post » orionreplay6607  
  • justangry
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 11:12pm

    Off the top of my head, I‘m thinking this isn’t really a bad thing. Who’s going to take Piven, Ayers and similar humanities-type liberals‘ courses if they know they can’t get a job with that crap?

    Report Post » justangry  
    • Cosmos102
      Posted on April 22, 2012 at 11:26pm

      Exactly!

      Report Post » Cosmos102  
    • tzion
      Posted on April 23, 2012 at 1:03am

      Personally I’m more inclined to blame those people for what essentially amounts to false advertising. I’m sorry but engineering and science majors are not worth the same as fine arts and creative writing majors.

      Report Post »  
  • beckwill
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:50pm

    Ahhh how does it feel young liberal Obama voters to do your part in spreading the wealth. What’s that hope and change tasting like now?

    Report Post »  
  • howardroark1165
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:49pm

    Welcome to the New Reality…. the New Norm. Remember when unemployment was in the 4‘s and low 5’s when W. was in office and the Dem’s made it out to be the end of the world (when in reality around 4 1/2% is considered full employment (in the real reality world that is))?”

    I miss W. !

    Report Post » howardroark1165  
  • Saywhatonemoretime
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:40pm

    and who did not see this coming…?

    dam lot of called experts and sheep did not…

    few of us foil hat wearers have been warning you for yeaars …

    (Come with me if you want to live)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doTfxqorni8&feature=related

    Live Free , Die Well…

    Report Post » Saywhatonemoretime  
  • 13th Imam
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:20pm

    That Photo of BARRY waving GOODBYE to many American JOBS, that would be taken by these skulls full of mush, is PRICELESS. A great campaign ad for the Republicans.

    Report Post » 13th Imam  
    • CatB
      Posted on April 22, 2012 at 11:11pm

      Isn’t it the truth .. they practically write themselves. Welcome to Obamanomic .. no job .. no money .. no hope … change you can’t believe in. LIBERTY 2012!

      Report Post »  
  • dealer@678
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:19pm

    Aint Marxism the greatest. Until your job gos to an illegal mexican. Oh yea, thats Marxism

    Report Post »  
  • marine249
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:14pm

    and we don’t want most of them

    Report Post »  
  • abbygirl1994
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:14pm

    Wake up kids… this is Obama’s doing! He does not want to create any jobs, he wants to keep you unemployed.. just like your Mom or Dd that might be unemployed! This is about bringing our country down and stirring you up and blaming the very people who create jobs! Wake up and vote him out in November! Help get this country back to work! Lord help us all!

    Report Post » abbygirl1994  
  • lukerw
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:12pm

    You mean BA Degrees are WorthLess? But you promised Higher Wages & Good Jobs… and we spent all that money! Wa… wa… wa…

    Socialists are creating their Army of the Disenfranchised!

    Report Post » lukerw  
  • Mutiny
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:11pm

    Obama is garbage and we all know it. None of his ideas will work because we(well I) know history. Romney is really no better. His economic plan doesnt address the problem either. He doesnt cut current spending levels and continues the same failed polices from previous presidents.

    Ron Paul 2012. He is getting my vote this November.

    Report Post » Mutiny  
    • beckwill
      Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:54pm

      It‘s hard to have an idea of work when he’s never done it! Affirmative Action paved the way all the way to the WH for this loser.

      Report Post »  
  • TXPilot
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:07pm

    Looks like all those kids with fresh liberal arts degrees are going to be spending a lot of time living in Mom and Dad’s basement.

    Report Post » TXPilot  
    • taxpro4u03
      Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:39am

      Maybe they can use that time (while internet/enligtenment is still available) to wipe their mental harddrives clean of the secularist ‘skooling’ and get a REAL ‘education – starting with how to COMMUNICATE reasonable and logical arguements in CIVIL discourse – It‘s not all that difficult to convey rational thought when you’re arguing with idiots. MOST employers don’t WANT people with the ability to think critically. They want drones and robots. If a monkey could say ‘u want fries wit dat?,‘ I believe MOST of those working the ’service’ industry WOULD be replaced… “Crony Capitalism.”

      Report Post »  
  • TexBork
    Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:06pm

    Oh yeah, the cost of indoctrination isn’t looking as gleaming as it once was.

    Report Post » TexBork  
    • Laus Deo
      Posted on April 22, 2012 at 10:11pm

      ‘Hope and Change’ meet ‘Record and Reality’

      Report Post » Laus Deo  
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