Americans Without College Degrees Are Having One of the Best Job Markets in Years

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Sept. 6, 2026 9:00 pm ET | Theo Francis and Ray A. Smith

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Unemployment among younger workers who didn’t go to college has rarely been lower in recent decades. It is the opposite story for college grads

For most U.S. workers—those without college degrees, that is—it is one of the best job markets in decades.

In fact, the unemployment rate for workers ages 22 to 34 who never graduated from college has rarely been lower in the past two decades, according to a new analysis by labor-market think tank Burning Glass Institute.

Unemployment rates for workers ages 22-34 by education level, with each group ranked against its own unemployment history since 2003

What is just as remarkable is how different that is from the experience of job seekers who did graduate from college, says Gad Levanon, Burning Glass’s chief economist. For most of the past two decades, the two groups largely tracked each other, in good economic times and bad.

Now, though, just as job hunters without degrees are having one of their best runs, those with college educations are having one of their worst. And those with advanced degrees or in fields such as science and technology are having an even harder time than usual.

That divergence of fortunes is a departure from what the U.S. economy has seen for years, and much of it boils down to supply and demand: There aren’t enough skilled tradespeople to go around, for example, as older generations retire and immigration drops.

Meanwhile, more Americans have college degrees than ever, just as artificial intelligence is doing more of the entry-level work companies typically hire young graduates for.

“There’s a rapidly growing supply of people with a bachelor’s degree, and you have a rapid decline of people who don’t,” Levanon says. “I don’t think...”

---

TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS:

[Red6]

Americans with worthless degrees, illegals are probably have a very bad time, those with H1B and student Visa’s a harder time.

Student Visa’s, the government is cracking down on them in so far that many folks are really just here to work and the college thing is BS. So not they are enforcing the 20 hour a week maximum work limit for student Visa’s.

[BrexitBen]

In the vast majority of cases, the cost of a college degree, both financially and career-wise, is a horrible investment.

Learning a trade, in a vocation in demand, is the step-ladder to a great career.

Young men, in particular, are finally realizing this hard truth.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Young men, in particular, are finally realizing this hard truth.

And young women, buried up to their eyeballs in student loan debt, aren't.

[shelterguy]

“””In the vast majority of cases, the cost of a college degree, both financially and career-wise, is a horrible investment””””

Perhaps. But they are “educated” and they learn that men can get pregnant. Can’t put a price on that kind of knowledge.

[marron]

And Americans with technical degrees should be doing well, who have learned how to actually do things, especially as artificial competition via H1B ramps down. Not in the game anymore, maybe others who still are can comment whether the effects of tightening H1B and encouraging industrial investment have been felt in the job market yet.

[central_va]

Outrageous, quick import more people!

- US Chamber of Commerce

[HIDEK6]

Poor (meaning bad, not destitute) students who remained in academia because they couldn’t compete in the real world have destroyed the usefulness of those institutions.

Just as reality eliminated incompetent graduates from gainful employment, so will it dismiss academia into irrelevancy.

[chajin]

There is nothing stopping a person with a college degree from taking a job that doesn’t require a college degree, except perhaps the graduate’s ego.

FYI, I earned my doctorate, and then for the next two years I worked in a Sears appliance repair shop alongside men who had never spent a day in a college class, and there was more than once that I thought of letting the degree gather dust and staying at Sears (I would have retired at about the time the company went under).

[wally_bert]

There is a younger woman at a regional office that has a doctorate in criminal psychology with no doubt, a heavy student loan debt.

I’m glad I never got one.

[GingisK]

Great if you want to be a plumber or a welder, not so much if you want to be an aeronautics engineer.

[GOPJ]

Now, though, just as job hunters without degrees are having one of their best runs, those with college educations are having one of their worst.

After a hundred grand 'investment' your kid comes home indoctrinated with hate for the United States, a full awareness of every 'fashionable' kink in the weirdo community,and a worthless 'education' taught by student interns with heavy accents and limited teaching skills? Welcome to 'OUR UNIVERSITIES SUCK WORLD'...

[VictoryGal]

All the college-educated desk jockeys are finding out that they are replaceable with AI.

Plumbers and electricians aren’t replaceable.

Choose wisely, young people. Folks who know how to do real things for real people will get rich, and the effete dingus with the Medieval Poetry degree and the keffiyeh scarf will starve.

[Organic Panic]

I use to think that. I ended up shutting down my business after 15 years. I made high end certified aircraft parts and had a fabrication shop. Nothing recovered after the lock downs. Competitors hired illegals as machine loaders while I paid pros. DEI policies at the big dick players pushed out small shops like mine. But oh how they bragged having “minority and women owned suppliers” and even those would sub the work to companies like mine that actually knew how to make parts. I have a few years of contract engineering work and when I don’t have to take care of mum anymore I will move back to work with buddy who has a plumbing business. I can’t wait to be an unemployed bum.