The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that an analysis of 2011 Current Population Survey data has found that 1.5 million - or 53.6 percent - of bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were either jobless or underemployed. This number is the highest in at least 11 years.
The analysis was conducted 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 found that out of the 1.5 million graduates who were adversely impacted by the weak job market last year, there were more graduates employed as waiters and waitresses, bartenders, and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined (100,000 vs. 90,000). Graduates employed in office-related jobs such as receptionist or clerks far outnumbered those who found work in all computer related jobs (163,000 vs. 100,000). There were more cashiers, retail clerks and customer representatives employed out of the last graduating class than engineers (125,000 vs. 80,000).
"Simply put, we're failing kids coming out of college," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, who analyzed the numbers. He said students who are graduating college today are facing a "double whammy" of rising tuition costs and poor job outcomes.
"We're going to need a lot better job growth and connections to the labor market, otherwise college debt will grow."
Harvard economist Richard Freeman agrees. "You can make more money on average if you go to college, but it's not true for everybody," Freeman told the AP. "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."
His advice is well qualified. 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. While openings are expected for teachers and accountants, all of the other openings are expected to be in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving, all jobs that aren't easily replaced by computers.
At the present time, college graduates who majored in zoology, anthropology, philosophy, art history and humanities are 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.
Kelman Edwards Jr., 24, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., is an example of what many young adults are facing as the exit college and attempt to enter the workforce.
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After earning a biology degree last May, the only job he could find was as a construction worker. He quit after five months to focus on finding a position in a laboratory but was repeatedly turned away by labs that were looking for people with specialized certifications or on-the-job experience.
"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," Edwards told the AP.
With $5,500 in student debt, he was recently told by a Middle Tennessee State University career counselor to pursue further education.
"Everyone is always telling you, 'Go to college,'" Edwards said. "But when you graduate, it's kind of an empty cliff."
The AP concludes: "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."
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