Unemployment among young college graduates outpaces overall US joblessness rate

AP News ^ | pdated 12:39 PM CDT, June 26, 2025 | CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

[E. Pluribus Unum]

WASHINGTON (AP) — While completing a master’s degree in data analysis, Palwasha Zahid moved from Dallas to a town near Silicon Valley. The location made it easy to visit the campuses of tech stalwarts such as Google, Apple, and Nvidia.

Zahid, 25, completed her studies in December, but so far she hasn’t found a job in the industry that surrounds her.

“It stings a little bit,” she said. “I never imagined it would be this difficult just to get a foot in the door.”

Young people graduating from college this spring and summer are facing one of the toughest job markets in more than a decade. The unemployment rate for degree holders ages 22 to 27 has reached its highest level in a dozen years, excluding the coronavirus pandemic. Joblessness among that group is now higher than the overall unemployment rate, and the gap is larger than it has been in more than three decades.

The rise in unemployment has worried many economists as well as officials at the Federal Reserve because it could be an early sign of trouble for the economy. It suggests businesses are holding off on hiring new workers because of rampant uncertainty stemming from the Trump administration’s tariff increases, which could slow growth.

“Young people are bearing the brunt of a lot of economic uncertainty,” Brad Hersbein, senior economist at the Upjohn Institute, a labor-focused think tank, said. “The people that you often are most hesitant in hiring when economic conditions are uncertain are entry-level positions.”

The growth of artificial intelligence may be playing an additional role by eating away at positions for beginners in white-collar professions such as information technology, finance, and law.

Higher unemployment for younger graduates has also renewed concerns about the value of a....

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TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: texas

[E. Pluribus Unum]

No delay in their student loan payments, however.

[Regulator]

And no let up in the 500,000 Chinese “students” who get to keep coming here and of course get a work visa when they graduate.

Something about “supply” and “demand”....

[Red Badger]

Political Science degrees ain’t what they used to be....................

[Red Badger]

I guarantee you the Chinese students are majoring in Women’s Studies.............

[HYPOCRACY]

Come in as an H1B from India. You’ll get hired with a fake diploma and no experience. You don’t even have to speak English, just some form of gibberish that they think passes for English.

[BenLurkin]

No Anthropologist jobs in the want ads.

[Bobbyvotes]

Data analysis does not sound like a manufacturing or engineering job. The Renaissance in manufacturing is just beginning in US. Get a degree in applied mechanics or civil engineering or mechanical engineering for better job prospects.

[dljordan]

She should apply in her home country.

[tumblindice]

Wrote thesis on Mongolian throat singing
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J3C5Srcd83A
(ten hours)

[Tell It Right]

All true. And get a job while in high school and college. It wasn’t just my BS in computer science that made me marketable. It was also having worked full time all through college pulling orders at a warehouse. Showing I had both a work ethic and IT skills got me my first programming job before the graduation ceremony.

[econjack]

Misleading, as the impact varies a lot by major field of study. A lot of naive freshman are being talked into majors in Gender Studies, World Handholding, and Kumbuya Studies.

The following table is from the 2021 NY Fed “Labor Market for Recent College Graduates” report

+-Major Unemployment Rate

Construction Services 1.4%

Nursing 1.3%

Nutrition Sciences 1.8%

Elementary Education 1.8% Business Analytics 2.2%

Chemical Engineering 4.1%

Accounting 3.3%

Computer Science 4.8%

Computer Engineering 3.7%

Physics 6.1%

Philosophy 9.1%

Sociology 9.0%

Fine Arts 12.1%

The bottom three are noteworthy. -

[Mark]

Philosophy is the winner!

[Red Badger]

Mongolian throat singing............At least it was something useful...................

[Steve_Seattle]

There’s a lot of outsourcing of tech jobs and call-center jobs to other countries. In an Albert Brooks movie, he’s walking down a street in Pakistan and passes an open window in an office. You hear a voice saying in a Pakistani accent, “This is the White House - may I help you?”

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Misleading, as the impact varies a lot by major field of study.

Duh.

[Vaduz]

Even CPA grads have to study a year with a CPA before they get the green light raw workers can be a drag.

Mistakes cost everyone

[bitt]

p

[libstripper]

Palwasha Zahid?? Is she even a citizen??

[Mlheureux]

Employers are not hiring from woke universities. They find that they get NO work from them. They are going back to traditional universities where common sense skills are taught.

[tumblindice]

Chicks dig musicians man.