What has happened to the college graduates who received their diplomas last Spring? Since that time, the word on the street—or at least on Wall Street—is that we are no longer in recession. But the improving public mood has not translated yet into hiring. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the overall unemployment rate inched up to 9.8% in September, with no demographic group being spared.
On the surface, the 9.3% unemployment rate for college grads with a bachelor’s degree under the age of 25 seems quite positive. After all, the National Association of Colleges and Employers survey of 16,000 college seniors, conducted through April 30, 2009, concluded that only 19.7% had jobs lined up by graduation. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics data hide some more troubling information. The employment numbers are higher than expected, because they include college graduates who did any work during the previous week—even if that work was part-time work while they were in graduate school, and even if the work did not require a college degree.
A better way of assessing the severity of the situation for recent grads is to compare employment data on 2009 graduates, to the same data, from the same month in 2008. The percentage of this cohort who are in the work force (employed or actively looking for work), is almost identical to a year ago, indicating that there was, in fact, no rush to graduate school. What is strikingly different is the change in both the number and the percentage of young college graduates seeking work compared to a year ago. The unemployment rate in September, 2008 for those with just a bachelor’s degree was 6.6%, compared to 9.3% a year later. In September, 2009, there were 202,000 young college graduates looking for work–54,000 more than in the same month last year. The situation is even worse for men. Their unemployment rate in September was 11%, compared to under 8% for women.
Peter Coy, who penned an article in Business Week on October 8, 2009, talks about the hazards of long term unemployment at the beginning of a career: “For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep and long-lasting, potentially creating a kind of “lost generation.” Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.”
So who is helping the Class of 2009 find opportunities and contribute to the economic recovery? Many alumni associations and careers offices have started to provide more services to their constituents, but their efforts often fall short due to lack of appropriate staffing, time or budget to help those who have already left school. Given the increasing cost of education and the decreasing value of a college, higher education needs to take more responsibility for the success of its graduates. And that success has to start with a job. While the cost of providing alumni career services may seem steep, it is money well spent. A college graduate who is given assistance when he or she needs help, is the one who will keep giving back to a college through increased engagement and philanthropy.
Graduate unemployment is not just a problem to be solved by the Career Services office, or the Alumni Association. It’s an institution-wide issue. Now is the time for discussion and action at the highest level of college and university administration. The Class of 2009 needs immediate help.
Update for October, 2009: The unemployment rate for college grads aged 20-24 is heading downwards. There was a .4% drop in the unemployment rate from 9.3% to 8.9% from September to October. But the rate of unemployment is still almost 40% higher than in October a year ago.
Note: Essential employment data on higher education, college graduates and Career Services is updated every month on this website.
“The Class of 2009 needs immediate help”
What about the class of 2008? too hopeless?
Forgotten?
definitely
When and if things are ever improved it will be some time.
Even if it magically improves next year.
If people with the same degree go for a job.
Say, class of 2010, 09, 08 and even 07
The employer will want somebody fresh out of school.
It will just become more and more impossible for those who graduated the past 2 years and eventually obsolete.
As though they never went to school at all.
Besides the thousands in debt they’ll be in for life.
I finished in the summer of 08
Was laid off from my part time turned full time job I had while in school in dec.
I apply to an average of 10 jobs every day.
I often search for high school diploma or no diploma required
Anything else is wishful thinking
I have 3 B.S. degrees but they’re worthless
and now I live out of my car.
College ruined my life.
[...] job climate in decades, and it will take you time to find the right job. You should know that less than 20 percent of all graduates will have jobs this year. Being an overachiever, I know it’s hard to accept, but you’re not alone and no one will [...]
im afraid im going to graduate soon. if the 2009 graduates are forgotten and the 2008 graduates were history and was thrown to the world of oblivion, then i guess my future is at stake.
how i wish that 2011 graduates will be spared from this unemployment drama.
i hate this reality.
hello self, its 2005 and you just graduated high school, which means by 2009 you’ll be done with college. Dont do what your parents (baby boomers whos college education was not only valuable but led all of them to a great future and away from war.) Go learn a skill, take the 50,000 your going to spend on college and bank it somewhere safe. In the mean time, work skilled jobs. Learn everything you can about everything that requires knowledge and training to operate. You family will be upset you didnt go to college, but thats because there oblivious with reality, to them, the college degree is the ticket to the future. Ask them, whos future? Your future? no, their future, there using you to complete what they were told not to achieve. Your an adult now, start making your own decisions, blind faith in your family, infact, blind faith in anything will lead you to the wrong end of a gun barrol.
Just under 20% of your 2009 college class will get a job, 2008 will fair no better. Work hard, and endure. Thats all you can do. theres no room for complaining or venting your frustration because I’m telling you now, everyone shares the same pain. The best advice I can tell you, its to work as hard as you can, and save everything. Alot of sharks out there intrested in releaving you of your excess funds. College is one of those sharks. The U.S Goverment is not interested in your well being, record everything you see, alot of it will make you cry. I’m writing you from the year 2010, and I dont recognise my country anymore…and Im only 22, begs the questions, what was my country, and how would I recognise it, for I’ve never known anything else, yet I feel there is much else that could work other than this.
If mom and dad call you crazy and get upset and call you a failure, just take it for what it is. Our generation has alot of that coming our way. God bless Gen Y
and may god destory the “College INC”
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