Only 50% of the college Class of 2020 had full-time jobs 6 months post grad

[Hydrogen]

The college class of 2020 entered one of the most hostile labor markets in recent history. During the first year of the Covid pandemic, employment decreased across the country. By many measures, college graduates fared best during this period, but as time passes, research is capturing just how difficult conditions are for young workers.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) recently analyzed the outcomes for 563,000 bachelor’s graduates across 337 colleges and universities and found that only 50.2% of the class of 2020 had full-time jobs with a traditional employer (meaning they are not working as a freelancer or entrepreneur) within six months of graduation. In comparison, 55.3% of the class of 2019 graduates were employed within the same time frame.

Students who attended colleges with fewer than 2,000 students tended to do better after graduation. Closer to 62% of these students had full-time positions after six months.

“The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant effect on the job market for the Class of 2020, and our report illustrates that,” says Shawn VanDerziel, executive director of NACE. “In terms of employment within six months of graduation, 2020 graduates had the worst outcomes since we began tracking with the class of 2014.”



According to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data from January 2020 to October 2020 by Pew Research Center, 2020 college graduates saw a bigger decrease in labor force participation than those who graduated during the Great Recession.

Pew estimates that among all Americans ages 16 and older, the employment rate declined from 61% in October 2019 to 58% in October 2020.

And according to an analysis of U.S. Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics and National Center for Education Statistics data for the years 1980 to 2019 by Georgetown University researchers, college costs have increased by 169% over the past four decades — while earnings for workers between the ages of 22 and 27 have increased by just 19%.

To make matters worse, college graduates today also owe more in student debt. Adjusted for inflation, 2008 college graduates owed $24,012 in student loans, on average. In 2020, that total was closer to $36,665.

Beyond a difficult labor market, the NACE report also mentions that graduate school attendance may be another reason the class of 2020′s employment rate dipped. Just over 21% of 2020 grads pursued continuing education after receiving their bachelor’s degree, an increase from 18.6% in 2019.

The report also notes that for college graduates who did manage to secure full-time traditional employment, wages increased.

“The average starting salary for the class of 2020 was $56,576 — 3.8% greater than in 2019. In addition, the median salary rose to $54,686 — 3.7% greater than in 2019,” reads the report. “A key driver for the increase in the average starting salary was the lack of lower-paying jobs that many new graduates typically secure as their first assignment following graduation. As was the case with the increases for the class of 2019, the salary increases for 2020 exceeded inflation. The real increase in starting salaries, controlling for inflation, was 2.5%.”

“Many of the retail, hospitality and other service-focused jobs simply weren’t there, and these tend to be lower-paying,” explains VanDerziel. “As a result, most of the salaries that were reported were the higher-paying jobs, which skewed the average.”


https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/10/50percent-of-the-class-of-2020-got-full-time-jobs-6-months-after-graduation.html

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Around 2012, I remember reading about the economies of portugal and spain suffering from 50% youth unemployment statistics. (Youth unemployment is ages 19-24) My reaction to this news was...  "the united states could someday suffer from the same troubles, and we would be very much unprepared for it". When I see economic doom and gloom in foreign lands and 3rd world countries, I always think similar trends will reach the shores of america eventually. Years later, america has finally arrived to having the same 50% youth unemployment statistics spain and portugal suffered 10 years ago.

The worst part of a 50% youth unemployment rate isn't usually on the surface. Its what is not seen, reflected in an uptick of suicide rates for young adults. Rising rates of homelessness for youth. Coupled with greater incidence of substance abuse, crime and violence. It was said to have taken more than a decade for sailors to accept the explanation of scurvy being caused by lack of citrus fruits and vitamin C. It may naturally follow that it will take decades for people to adequately become informed on and respond to topics like high youth unemployment.

The learning curve of people becoming informed and competent on topics, could be greatly reduced. People might be learning and responding at greatly accelerated rates in contrast to past precedents. While current events are not great, do we all feel tempted to acknowledge that people are smarter and better informed than we gave them credit for being? Perhaps we can feel better about circumstances even if they are not ideal. And have hope for the future, in that people today might be smarter and more knowledgeable than those in past eras. It may no longer take 10 years for people to accept scurvy being caused by fruit and vitamin C deficiency. Perhaps we can respond to and fix these types of issues much more quickly now.

[1715234338]

1715234338

[Gozie51]

There is no doubt that unemployment is on the rise whether in Spain or US, the challenge is how to take care of it and the youth are the worst hit on this. It has affected many youth and yet it rate keeps rising because there are no better effort to provide proper and sufficient employment. In US, the rate is increasing from the past administration to the current.

[bitmover]

I think 6 months is a really short-period... But 50% unemployment after graduation is a terrible statistics. I am sure that this number is way higher in developing countries.

The main point is: does the world really need all those   bachelor graduated?

There aren't jobs for all those people. Even in developed countries.

Most important than looking for job is being able to create your company or become a self employed professional. My goal is to become full time self employed one day.

There are tons of opportunities in cryptocurrency space. We just need to develop our skills and look where those skills are needed

[Charles-Tim]

I think 6 months is a really short-period... But 50% unemployment after graduation is a terrible statistics. I am sure that this number is way higher in developing countries.

I would have just preferred overall employment rate per each country. When Hydrogen posted this, it was in my mind that 'see how people in developed country are thinking'. In fact, it has gone worse than this in developing country. If just six months after graduation is used in my country, I believe over 80% (I guessed this) are not employed while many that have been employed are underemployed. It is even not about what you know here in my country, it is about connection.

Most important than looking for job is being able to create your company or become a self employed professional. My goal is to become full time self employed one day.

You are definitely right.

[qwertyup23]

Imagine, a hegemonic country such as the US is suffering from 50% youth unemployment rate- what more to developing and underdeveloped countries?

The rise of COVID definitely affected the employment opportunities of the youth considering that 2020 was the year that the pandemic started. A few months after its outburst, businesses and universities were not able to adapt and provide alternative methods quickly (compared now where everything is virtual). Not to mention, even if they adapted methods, its effectivity is not that ideal due to the difference between learning virtually vs physically.

[amishmanish]

How is this alarming. The data from 2014 has remained < 55%. This is around 50 at present. The data is not covering the number of people who are working as freelancers. In the times of sitting inside homes, on your screens for 3 months, a lot of people got a lot of ideas and inspiration to just pack up things and start doing something else.

People who hadn't sang, or drew or danced for years, suddenly found the time. One can only imagine what a young adult actually felt during this time. People aren't really so pessimistic or pragmatic at this stage.

I think there is equal probability that a lot of these people found better things to do like working on their own projects. If you see Crypto-twitter there are a lot of those who are just dabbling into cryptos and NFTs and degen farms. I doubt that these are stable employment opportunities but they are there.

This decrease would have been a lot more alarming if not for the unprecedented set of circumstances accompanying them.

[DaveF]

It's a big drop, but still going from a high of 55% to even 49% is not that big a deal with everything else going on in the world.

The other questions is how much of those higher numbers were real full time jobs, but with lower pay then should have been offered. And now, more and more people are not taking those jobs and would rather deliver food for Uber Eats while waiting to get paid what they should? How many of those full time jobs were not a 100% perfect fit for what they went to school for but they took it anyway, and now more people are waiting for the right job or at least one closer to what they want to school for.

-Dave

[Silberman]

There is no doubt that unemployment is on the rise whether in Spain or US, the challenge is how to take care of it and the youth are the worst hit on this. It has affected many youth and yet it rate keeps rising because there are no better effort to provide proper and sufficient employment. In US, the rate is increasing from the past administration to the current.

And it is not really a mystery why this is the case as there are many reasons  behind this, most people that due to their age should be retired by now need to keep working as they did not saved for their retirement, the money they have is not enough or in the case of many countries the government stole that money, so they miss on several opportunities that should have opened but do that not.

Inflation is also causing many companies to delay hiring new employees as they have to reduce costs, and finally we know that AI is taking over many jobs that just a decade ago it would have seemed impossible to predict it could take, reducing the opportunities of the young even further.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I keep hearing mixed stories in the media about employment, jobs, and so forth.  On one hand they're saying that tons of people are choosing not to work for a variety of reasons, COVID being one of the big ones.  On the other, we get stories like this, which I'm not sure how to interpret.

Something tells me that new college grads in the US are probably choosing not to enter the workforce rather than jobs being unavailable, because there are a lot of open positions all throughout the country, and employers are often desperate to find help.  Those grads might not be finding jobs in areas related to their major, but they certainly could be employed if they wanted to.

I also think a lot of young folks are opting to do things like content creation on Youtube or other online work.  When it's seemingly so easy to become an internet celebrity on Youtube (and make decent money), why wouldn't a young person with some AV equipment give it a shot?  I'm sure most college grads aren't doing that, but I'm sure there's a non-negligible percentage of them that are, and they're thus not showing up in statistics like those reported in the OP.

So ultimately I think this is an article tailored to instill fear or some other sentiment in the minds of CNBC's readership.  Isn't that what most media outlets aim for?

[xSkylarx]

Imagine, a hegemonic country such as the US is suffering from 50% youth unemployment rate- what more developing and underdeveloped countries?

The rise of COVID definitely affected the employment opportunities of the youth considering that 2020 was the year that the pandemic started. A few months after its outburst, businesses and universities were not able to adapt and provide alternative methods quickly (compared now where everything is virtual). Not to mention, even if they adapted methods, its effectivity is not that ideal due to the difference between learning virtually vs physically.

Strongly agree to this. This is the year of pandemic and there are a lot of business closed and lot of employees got fired , the demand of job lowers so you cant really expect that there are a lot of hiring on that time, also the competitions is a lot since there are more job hunters than jobs. Also there are employers that the graduates on that time is not really fitted since they are not going to school physically and doing the actual test or trainings that needs to be done in school

[Husires]

The difference in employment rates cannot be narrowed down to the year 2020-2021 and build analyzes on it with this exceptional year, which may include very extreme data.
Employment rates are always linked to some political calculations, which are affected by economic factors and health variables, and inflation may not be one of the decisive factors in them.

Source: https://www.gwhatchet.com/2017/04/20/recent-graduation-employment-rate-jumps-seven-percent/


The above data are for previous years, which may seem logical, and the difference will be in the short term. Calculating the five-year data may make more sense.

Employment data is not a big problem. After all, if inflation is not controlled, the problem will increase.

[el kaka22]

It is not even about getting employed or not, it is about how horrible the working conditions became once again. In history it always became better and better, 2000 years ago the worker class was doing horrible, many were slaves that were used for work, and all the free ones got enough payment to have a shelter and eat bread and drink water, that’s literally it, nothing more at all.

This is why humanity went on strikes hundreds of times, even the slave rebellions were basically strikes. 100+ years ago was last huge one, sure it wasn't the last one but it was the last HUGE one. Right now, we are talking about conditions getting worse and even the newly employed ones do not get the life conditions they deserve, these are college graduates and they should be able to afford a rent and live decently, not greatly but at least decently, people in their 30's ended up buying houses just 30-40 years ago, nowadays you can't even easily pay a whole rent by yourself.

[adaseb]

As someone who went to University I don’t find this surprisingly at all. I think about 50% or so of all my friends and classmates are not even in the same profession.

Most degrees are useless and you won’t have a career out of it. You won’t get a job when you graduate from Arts or Sciences, maybe unless you want to teach.

All the other degrees like law, engineering, etc are very competitive to get actually hired. There are more spots for students then there are jobs.

[Chrystora123]

As someone who went to University I don’t find this surprisingly at all. I think about 50% or so of all my friends and classmates are not even in the same profession.

Most degrees are useless and you won’t have a career out of it. You won’t get a job when you graduate from Arts or Sciences, maybe unless you want to teach.

All the other degrees like law, engineering, etc are very competitive to get actually hired. There are more spots for students then there are jobs.

Currently 1 job vacancy is up for grabs by 10 thousand job seekers, the competition is getting tougher every day.  For this reason, graduates must be able to think even harder, if they don't get a job, they must be able to start their own business even though it requires a strong mentality and capital..

[24Kt]

As someone who went to University I don’t find this surprisingly at all. I think about 50% or so of all my friends and classmates are not even in the same profession.

Most degrees are useless and you won’t have a career out of it. You won’t get a job when you graduate from Arts or Sciences, maybe unless you want to teach.

All the other degrees like law, engineering, etc are very competitive to get actually hired. There are more spots for students then there are jobs.

Currently 1 job vacancy is up for grabs by 10 thousand job seekers, the competition is getting tougher every day.  For this reason, graduates must be able to think even harder, if they don't get a job, they must be able to start their own business even though it requires a strong mentality and capital..

Also, if they can't find a job that suits their completed education, they can always look for jobs that they know they have the skills of. Because if you will stick to the degree that you have, I don't think you can easily get a job as you have so many competitors. And yes, if you have small capital, why not start your own business? Every business starts from somewhere. So even if it is small, that's fine. In time, you will get your own niche if you are resilient about your project. And as we are still not out of the woods in pandemic crisis, we should find a way how to survive, and sustain our basic needs.

[Charles-Tim]

Currently 1 job vacancy is up for grabs by 10 thousand job seekers, the competition is getting tougher every day.  For this reason, graduates must be able to think even harder, if they don't get a job, they must be able to start their own business even though it requires a strong mentality and capital..

I always like the idea of people that believe in self employment. We should also know that to be rich is from the inside of us, a way we can think that 2 can become 4 when it comes to money is the bases of wealth. But '1 job vacancy is up for grabs by 10 thousand job seekers depends from country to country. I will not doubt this is possible in some countries, but not possible in some countries for now.

For more accuracy, you can just use the employment and unemployment rate per countries. There are few countries with low unemployment rate.

[goldkingcoiner]

Self employment and business entrepeneurship is the only way to go for me, even though I studied physics (for myself rather than to finally obtain the professors seat at some university later down the line, when Im 60 years old). Don't get me wrong, I am a scientist in my heart but almost nobody in their right mind would allow themselves to be financially abused the way post grads do. If they are lucky, they get a half time position which pays about 1000 Euro monthly. Its pathetic. And the same goes for almost all high-end academics. At some point nobody needs someone that specialised.

[BitcoinAccepted]

Self employment and business entrepeneurship is the only way to go for me, even though I studied physics (for myself rather than to finally obtain the professors seat at some university later down the line, when Im 60 years old). Don't get me wrong, I am a scientist in my heart but almost nobody in their right mind would allow themselves to be financially abused the way post grads do. If they are lucky, they get a half time position which pays about 1000 Euro monthly. Its pathetic. And the same goes for almost all high-end academics. At some point nobody needs someone that specialised.

Well said. I really admire people that chose to be self-employed and indulge themselves with entrepreneurial careers, because they have brave enough to go down the path on their own and courageous to pursue what they want in life. In today’s time, entrepreneurial skills are among the many essential skills, and I think that this would really help those college graduates that finds it hard to secure a job position, especially during this time of pandemic. I also know some people that even though they are pursuing their chosen profession, they still chose to have side hustles of their own.

[paxmao]

It would also be interested to know how the people who did not attend college fared. There is a lot of questioning on the real value of college and university education as it is , AFAIK, a free market in the USA and therefore by mere economic theory it will tend to reach a point in which the investment in time, money , effort would tend to an equilibrium with the benefits of such education (nicer jobs, better pay, better lifetime value). Did people looking for job without any degree do any better?

[stompix]

This reminds me of the democrat's story about the major drop in gas prices...

Let's recreate this graph but make it full.


Both graphs use the same data, one is cropped one is not, the difference is that one was created to exaggerate some news and make some clickbait articles.

I think 6 months is a really short-period... But 50% unemployment after graduation is a terrible statistics. I am sure that this number is way higher in developing countries.

The main point is: does the world really need all those   bachelor graduated?
There aren't jobs for all those people. Even in developed countries.

There are thousands of job openings here for graduated students, especially in some fields there are companies who would hire you immediately, in most western countries it's hard to find something that is currently not required in the economy and you don't have a  single job offering for it.

Also, this 50% is unemployment after graduation is again not showing the full picture
- 21% of 2020 grads pursued continuing education after receiving their bachelor’s degree
- stats are for 6 months since the graduation, so poeple might get a job starting the7-8 month
- it doesn't include freelancers or poeple running their own business
- it only counts full-time employment
- the data is a survey covering only 580k students, there is a total of 2.08 million each year.

Currently 1 job vacancy is up for grabs by 10 thousand job seekers, the competition is getting tougher every day.

There are currently 11m job openings in the US, at your rates you would need 110 billion people seeking jobs...in the US alone