New Report Shows College Grads Under and Unemployed

• Author: Monica Jackson
• Posted: 2024-10-17

It’s echoed in the ear of most Americans since childhood: “Go to college.” From the parents, from politicians, from pundits, from every direction, playing on ever decibel level, kids have been urged to go to college. A degree will ensure a good career, they’re told. However, according to new data released in 2020, plenty of college grads are unemployed or working in low-wage positions.

This is epitomized in a microcosm of society by young, educated women like Kayrisha Taylor, who graduated from college in hopes of landing a high-paying, influential job. After earning only $27,000 a year, not enough to even live in an area she would prefer, she realizes now that there’s a disconnect. While young adults are being funneled into college, and racking up tens of thousands in student loan debt, there’s nothing much to meet them on the other end.

“I find myself struggling month to month,” Taylor stated. The big issue here is that Taylor’s far from the only person making such statements. It’s a very common issue among younger college graduates. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who recently released some statistical data, there is a growing number of college-educated Adults in America either unable to get a job or making below $25,000 a year.

Experts’ Advice Goes Ignored

While many of these young adults blame the job market, the president, and other factors, one thing that should be mentioned is that many economic experts in America have for years pointed out that young adults should consider trade schools, not actual universities. Their reasoning was simple: Today’s popular degrees are not in demand, not in this job market.

Experts argue that due to more young adults pushed into college out of high-school, universities are charging more money, government is guaranteeing their student loans, and thus colleges are doing whatever they can to take advantage by offering newer and easier courses every day.

For instance, there is really no demand for a range of degrees that are incredibly popular in America now, such as “gender studies,” “critical race theory,” “African diaspora studies,” and other courses whose intellectual rigor is in question, and whose utility in the free market, experts say, is nonexistent. The point they have been trying to make, to no avail, is that too many kids buy into the push to go to college, though once there decide to major in a field that does not allow them to recoup their money.

Perhaps something like “gender studies” has utility, insofar as it’s offered as a credit course to broaden one’s horizons regarding the social nature of how gender is defined and the implications borne thereof. However, as many point out, the only way to really recoup the investment from such a degree is to teach it to other students, which makes many of these courses indistinguishable from pyramid schemes.

Troubling Data Paints a Bleak Picture of the Future

According to the data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, only 35% of college graduates from ages 22 to 27 earn more than $45,000 annually, around the nation’s average. The facts are also clear as to whence come that 35% -- they’re the students whose degrees were in applicable fields, no some sort of advanced social studies.

Though, to be clear, it’s not just those softer liberal arts fields that lead to underpaying employment in many cases. Degrees in psychology and even some medical fields are not experiencing the boom many would like to see. The reasons for this could be numerous, but the one common denominator seems to be that there’s an oversaturation of degree holders coming out of universities, while the trades, such as plumbing and electricity, etc, have many spots left unfilled and have experienced a huge drop off in recent years.

Going to a trade school to learn how to wire office buildings for $70,000 annually just doesn’t seem as attractive to young adults as learning about the sociological definition of race and perhaps changing the way the entire world thinks.

Some believe that this is due to ease and excess in young people’s lives, in the age of iPads and smartphones and $12 coffees. For instance, a child grows up never wanting for anything, and so when they go off to college, they go for romantic notions, not necessarily considering a field that will offer a return on their investment.

No matter what’s to blame, this trend needs to change, or colleges will eventually be shunned by most as pyramid scheme scams.