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

[aysg76]

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.

The employment rate has not been increasing at a steady pace if we compare it with the population growth in most of the countries which is why the unemployment rate is rising.But in actual it's way more than that as they don't survey some youth who drop out from the colleges at an early age due to some financial issues or any other family problems and only those who are not able to get job after post graduation didn't get the job.But if we look at the rates of unemployment across different countries we have this reports:

The more important part is the rate have increased over time and we didn't see it easily but if we come at root level we can easily see that huge proportion of youth is still not able to get the job and we can see how the rates have varied over time at global levels:

The @OP has mentioned that after 6 months of completing the graduation they are not finding any job still but in many developing and underdeveloped countries this is common as they still struggle a lot to have job matching their qualifications or salary for many months or even years.The top companies come to college and pick up the cream and moreover the rate is not 100% and say 10 out of 18 will find the job so rest 8 will have to look for it themselves only and 6 months is not  a long period.

The second major factor is the course you have choosen like the demand for IT sector has boomed and other courses have been in demand less over these years so the difficulty increase/decrease to find job depending on the course you have in your post graduation.The pandemic has hit the sector hard all over the world and we can't say the companies would be hiring in bulk at this moment also but slowly they will hire but remember only some will get the chance as these unemployment rates are not going to improve easily.

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.

The best is to learn some practical skills that could help you to be self sustainable and don't completely rely on jobs and search for them.You have to compromise sometimes to have cash with you to support your financial needs.But to have startup you need skills and investment which is not in everyone's hand but yes they could learn some skills to start their own business so they could earn good from it.

[kryptqnick]

It is all truly a big difference? A drop from 55% to 50% is not nothing, but data like this would make sense it comparison with, say, the employment rate of those without college degrees who are of the same age as college graduates (not merely the overall employment rate for everyone aged 16+). Also, this is only accounting for traditional employment, but many might indeed choose freelance, careers as social media influencers or start their own businesses after college, and without this data it's also hard to assess the data that the article presents. As for the tuition and student debt rising, those are very valid concerns. I still don't understand why education in the US is so expensive when it's way more affordable in many Western countries.

[DrBeer]

Unfortunately it is a highly repetitive story, you'd see a similar pattern if you overlayed the years up to and including the 2008 financial crisis. The people at the bottom end of the job scale (people just coming into the workforce) will often face the hardest struggles during the dip of a recession with employers much less likely to take on new staff when the current workers are in unprecedented lockdowns. That combined with the Covid effect on hospitality in general, which is a very common starting pool for part time jobs and utilizes workers from the youngster age groups a lot. We'll see a slow recovery as people start travelling and socializing more, but it'll be a bumpy road.

The even worse situation is that people at the bottom are the ones that end up with getting fired and the ones who stayed are given the work load of the previous people as well. So instead of 10k warehouse workers, you have 7k of them and give those 7k people the workload of 10k and not like they can leave neither because they would fail to find another job. So, we have people who are unemployed AND people who are employed but worked tirelessly as well.

This will never lead to anything decent in the long run, which is why I doubt that it would be doing anyone any good but that is how the economy works, CEO's and shareholders and board of directors will not take a pay cut, they will just lay that off to bottom workers.

Can i ask you ? And why do they agree to do more work for the same pay, and moreover to do more for others?
Who allows an employer to fulfill the role of a slave owner? Who's stopping you from disagreeing? Well, it is clear "we have unemployment, everything is bad, otherwise they will be fired." If you yourself justify such behavior, and even more then give an explanation, then to whom do you have claims? Well, this is the situation, yes - the employer can set conditions, yes - you do not want to give up the job offered by such an employer. If you do not like the employer of exit 2 - either change the employer or create a job for yourself. And, there is also the third option - to retrain for another, in-demand specialty. If you constantly suffer and continue to fulfill the will of the employer - this is how your whole life will pass, and it will be fine, since in fact everything suits you, you do not seek to change something and explain why it is "invariable".

I have a lot of immigrants in my country. There is a family, I met them, from Sri Lanka. They migrated to Ukraine (yes, not to Germany or France), and after half a year they opened their own business - they have 2 fruit / vegetable stalls. Husband, wife and eldest son are working. They work efficiently, I often buy products from them, and I know that they already have many regular customers. They were able to ... No one helped them, the problems were like everyone else's. They just wanted and CHANGED the situation!

[RealMalatesta]

That graph is quite misleading given the skewed scales in my opinion.

I think that it is definitely a real effect in the sense that they were not able to find jobs immediately following the pandemic, but just a few months after the pandemic the job market has become incredibly hot again.

If you are a talented coder etc. you will have absolutely 0 issue with finding employment in the current climate. In fact recruiters will beg for you.

Maybe in USA things worked differently and you guys found a way to get people employed, but where I live pandemic dropped the employment rate a lot and it hasn't recovered since. I have to say that things are still out of control and unemployment is at sky high rates here. Plus we are talking about reaching as high as 16% in USA as well at one point, sure it is looking like 4% right now, but most of those are at low level jobs unfortunately, look at the job application places and you will see that "senior" works are at all time low right now and juniors are nearly non-existent.

It means that people who graduated from college end up working at amazon warehouses or something, people who used to have their small shops ended up working at wallmart, people who had a great career before pandemic had to accept much lower offers. All of these are still horrible even if unemployment seems "ok" for time being. All those 16%+ unemployed people did not went back to better jobs, they went to much worse jobs.

[Silberman]

I do think that now a days we don't really have to focus just on that but we also have to focus on the rights and health of the workers, the workers are actually leaving their jobs because they are not paid well and at the same time this overworking is causing them immense stress. People are leaving their jobs !! Especially during the pandemic, makes us think how they were treated for real. I do think that it's really important that the companies do realize that people need respect and plans, better services and payments.
I went in so many interviews and for 40 hours a week they were providing only 330$ which I indeed have to do if the things don't turn out well, that's the payment scale for full time jobs in third world companies. It's really terrible out there.
Degrees are essentially not useless if you worked hard on yours, which takes ages and a lot of money as well, people have to apply for a student loan and then they have to pay back the loans through jobs, they earn nothing in between!! That's all a big dark web.

Without a doubt the high cost of education is a huge problem, however people are at fault too, people indebt themselves many times over to get a degree that does not really have a clear career path and then they complain about it, when the truth is that if you cannot pay for college then it is better to stay away from it, and if you are going then you better get a degree which is useful otherwise do not go, it is true that learning institutions are taking advantage of the people but the people make almost no effort to avoid their fate either.

[im posible]

I am one of them, I graduated in 2021 and so far have not found a job. I thought that before Covid everything was easier and smoother, but after Covid everything became bleak, especially the economic sector. If I want to open my own business I don't have the capital, while I'm getting older and it will be more difficult to get a job.

[stomachgrowls]

I do think that now a days we don't really have to focus just on that but we also have to focus on the rights and health of the workers, the workers are actually leaving their jobs because they are not paid well and at the same time this overworking is causing them immense stress. People are leaving their jobs !! Especially during the pandemic, makes us think how they were treated for real. I do think that it's really important that the companies do realize that people need respect and plans, better services and payments.
I went in so many interviews and for 40 hours a week they were providing only 330$ which I indeed have to do if the things don't turn out well, that's the payment scale for full time jobs in third world companies. It's really terrible out there.
Degrees are essentially not useless if you worked hard on yours, which takes ages and a lot of money as well, people have to apply for a student loan and then they have to pay back the loans through jobs, they earn nothing in between!! That's all a big dark web.

Without a doubt the high cost of education is a huge problem, however this also the fault of people, people indebt themselves many times over to get a degree that does not really have a clear career path and then they complain about it, when the truth is that if you cannot pay for college then it is better to stay away from it, and if you are going then you better get a degree which is useful otherwise do not go, it is true that learning institutions are taking advantage of the people but the people make almost no effort to avoid their fate either.

Talking about fate then this is something cant be concluded because no one knows on what would a persons future would be but we cant really deny that having a degree would give out advantage compared to those who havent but we cant really make out assurance because there are people who dont have a degree but becomes more rich or wealthy compare to  those who do have.

It all matters on how you do find ways on enhancing your way of living via other means as long it would be legal then we had seen lots of similar situations.

Lets just accept our fate and it is really mixed with some sort of luck when dealing up something.

[xSkylarx]

I am one of them, I graduated in 2021 and so far have not found a job. I thought that before Covid everything was easier and smoother, but after Covid everything became bleak, especially the economic sector. If I want to open my own business I don't have the capital, while I'm getting older and it will be more difficult to get a job.

Imagine before the pandemic came, it was still hard to find a decent job. How much more now? Almost all of the business sectors are removing employees to cope with their losses. I also lost my job when the pademic came, but I am lucky enough and thankful that after a few months, I got a job. Now, regardless of what you have studied in applying for a job, if you are truly in need of money, I believe you should choose a job that will hire you no matter you dont like it because it is extremely difficult to follow your career path at the moment.

[Findingnemo]

Degree is losing its value even before the covid started because companies started to recruit people based on the skills not based on what degree they have so many people complete and get graduated without actual knowledge left stranded in the competitive world.

[pinggoki]

Problem is that there's a lot of people already and the demand for services aren't meeting the current population so with low demand, we will see less businesses offering the same thing and in turn less workers needed and with more looking for a job which leads to no vacancy. I think that the best thing to do right now as a college graduate is for us to learn niche subjects because most industries popping up have a really niche qualifications, we will only see an increase in jobless graduates in the near future.

[davis196]

I live in a not-so-well developed country and there's a actually shortage for workers in my country.
The companies are desperate to find qualified people,so they are raising the salaries and offering all kinds of additional benefits.
However,there's a demographic crisis in my country and the young people are a decreasing minority.Many young people prefer to go to the western countries,rather than stay and work in their homeland.
There must be something wrong with the US labor market,just like the southern European labor markets in Spain,Greece and Italy.Those countries were also facing high unemployment rates among the youngsters.
Maybe the companies aren't incentivized to hire young people,or the education system isn't preparing the youngsters well enough.

[Sithara007]

Problem is that there's a lot of people already and the demand for services aren't meeting the current population so with low demand, we will see less businesses offering the same thing and in turn less workers needed and with more looking for a job which leads to no vacancy. I think that the best thing to do right now as a college graduate is for us to learn niche subjects because most industries popping up have a really niche qualifications, we will only see an increase in jobless graduates in the near future.

Learning niche subjects can go both directions. It is a high-risk option. By the time someone graduates out with such a degree, there is no guarantee that the job demand will be the same. There are professions such as therapeutic Riding Instructor, Body Paint Artist, Ocularist, Hippotherapist.etc, which can be described as "niche". The only issue is that no one knows how the job market will respond to these jobs after 2-3 years. So there is a huge amount of uncertainty and those who want to pursue these degrees should be aware of that.

[el kaka22]

I live in a not-so-well developed country and there's a actually shortage for workers in my country.
The companies are desperate to find qualified people,so they are raising the salaries and offering all kinds of additional benefits.
However,there's a demographic crisis in my country and the young people are a decreasing minority.Many young people prefer to go to the western countries,rather than stay and work in their homeland.
There must be something wrong with the US labor market,just like the southern European labor markets in Spain,Greece and Italy.Those countries were also facing high unemployment rates among the youngsters.
Maybe the companies aren't incentivized to hire young people,or the education system isn't preparing the youngsters well enough.

It is mainly about how the older generation already made their profit and they already bought all they need and they do not require a HUGE sum of money, whereas younger generation requires something close to those veterans to be able to survive, if you pay a 20+ year in business veteran person 5k per month, and the 25 year old asks 3k, then you pay that extra 2k easily without a question, but if the newbie asks for 1k per month then how could they even survive? This is the dilemma, right now people are not unemployed all that much but mainly underemployed mainly.

Veterans get paid a lot less than what they deserve, and newbies are either interns with nearly no pay or no pay, or they are over-utilized and expected to be working as well as a veteran. These are all great troubles even if 100% employment rate is ever reached, we can't have people happy when they are employed at a terrible job with little pay.

[justdimin]

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?

Most of the time there is a "make or break" situation when you do not finish college. You either start a business and become either rich or bankrupt or maybe have both of them available because you could both get super rich and bankrupt later or bankrupt many times and get rich later on. Or you could become blue collar, become a mechanic, become a wood worker, become a factory worker if you want to, basically do jobs that are not just 9-5 office jobs and you could be doing fine over time as well.

So, when you are 20 years old and not finished college then you are not going to be rich most of the time, you are going to be starting out a career on something and only the future will tell you what could happen.

[Coyster]

Degree is losing its value even before the covid started because companies started to recruit people based on the skills not based on what degree they have so many people complete and get graduated without actual knowledge left stranded in the competitive world.

I second that, many organizations/companies really do not care what class of degree you graduated with, after all these days quite a lot of people pay their way through school, without attending classes or garnering any knowledge, but at the end they are awarded a degree, thus I don't really blame companies when they seek for just raw talent/skill, they are looking for what you can offer the organization and not what you graduated with from school.

Having said that, the need to have a skill cannot be overemphasized in our contemporary society, that's the main reason why most tertiary institutions dedicate a particular compulsory course for students on entrepreneurship/skills acquisition, I think it's very important, and for schools that are yet to adopt that, then their students are really missing a lot. With the rising rate of unemployment, one really has to teach/educate oneself in a particular field/skill/area of knowledge.

[Jawhead999]

There are many issue of unemployment of graduates. So, Bitcoin currency is a currency that provide opportunity for graduates student to make money. Just by learning some basic knowledge and investment. After that you can earn a passive income at home. So, it's a best opportunity for students that have no job and no source of income..

You're talking nonsense here.

1. Not all graudates student have a lot capital to start investment.
2. Investment in Bitcoin doesn't give you good return in short times and not everyday you'll earn profit to cover your daily spend.
3. Not all graudates student live in countries which allow you to hold and trade Bitcoin, using Bitcoin in banned countries will have in troubles.

[Lubang Bawah]

The world is experiencing an economic recession, especially after the pandemic that has caused many types of businesses to go bankrupt, this is the importance of studying business and economics, so that when you finish college you can do productive activities as long as you don't get a job, and I'm always optimistic that the future can it's better to keep trying and not be afraid to fail.

[mu_enrico]

Okay, 50% have full-time jobs, but how many of them work at jobs that they actually want? I believe the percentage will way smaller since many of them took any jobs just to survive. You know, even I who have higher education don't think that it's worth it. If I can go back in time, I'd rather became only highschool graduate and then become an apprentice of a sushi master, a carpenter, etc., who have the real-world skill to survive in almost every situation. College is a scam, just to make our mind busy while losing our capital to pay tuition. There's not enough and won't ever be enough jobs for college graduates.

[stompix]

Why blame the job market? Nowadays a lot of students opt for useless subjects such as gender studies, behavioral medicine, psychosociology and Islamic history, which doesn't have much relevance in the job market. And it is not surprising that once they graduate, these students struggle to find suitable jobs. In fields such as engineering and medicine, there is still a shortage of qualified freshers. In many of the developed nations, the governments are forced to allow immigration from other countries, to fill this gap.

There are two things wrong with your statement, and it is victim shaming at the very best that has been talked about the right wing for over a decade that has been shot down a million times already but they do not like to do research so it is normal that you do not know the answers of your "questioning". First of all, if there is a college major in the name of gender studies or psychology or whatever else that on your high ground you deem "not worthy of becoming a major", then why is it available?

If it is available to pick and people do pick it, then they become unemployed, is it their fault? Then if it doesn't provide any job at all and we do not "need" these majors then remove them from college? Even in your case where you somehow play the god and decide some majors are worthless based on your vast experience and super smart mind, that is a problem by colleges and not students for starting a major with high unemployment rate that the nation doesn't need more of.

"Victim" ? A victim of his own choices maybe.

So If I need a car with four sits to carry my family around and I come back with a bike it's the fault of the bike shop? If I need to check my eyesight and the only investigations I do is for my sperm count is the sperm bank at fault for me not seeing a stop sign and hitting a truck?
If I want to invest and I buy dogecoin instead of bitcoin it's the fault of coin base if I won't get the same return?
Why do you think every graduate deserves the right to have a job that matches his education right off the bat? Such a system existed in the past in most countries, you know for sure the outcome, every guy that managed to pass a few exams would work a job he in most cases wasn't fit for. Oh, and yeah, the evil right wing! Seems like you're desperately seeing for someone to give jobs to everyone no matter how much that would hurt the economy, somebody must take care of you and do everything for you.

It's not about victim shaming it's about manning up and facing the consequences of your own decision!
Nobody forced you to go to that college or attend that specific study (unless your parents did so) and the rest of the workforce should not have to carry the burden of sustaining a failing sector of the economy just because some poeple think it's worth it and needs those jobs.

Oh, and btw, I've worked exactly 3 years out of more than twenty in a field that matches my master's degree.

I live in a not-so-well developed country and there's a actually shortage for workers in my country.
The companies are desperate to find qualified people,so they are raising the salaries and offering all kinds of additional benefits.
~
There must be something wrong with the US labor market,just like the southern European labor markets in Spain,Greece and Italy.Those countries were also facing high unemployment rates among the youngsters.

The only thing wrong with the US labor market is that there are 11 million job openings and nobody wants them.

There were about 1.5 job openings per unemployed worker in October.

[Silberman]

Degree is losing its value even before the covid started because companies started to recruit people based on the skills not based on what degree they have so many people complete and get graduated without actual knowledge left stranded in the competitive world.

And this is what happens when the education you receive is worth nothing, decades ago when the school system still cared about preparing people for the future a degree was worth something, however students and the education complex came to the conclusion the value was on the degree itself and not on the education that you supposedly received, so people began to chase all kind of useless degrees to the point the market is inundated with them and now many companies are ignoring degrees and instead hire people based on skill alone, which in many cases that is the only thing the companies care about.