11/20/2023

New College Grads are More Likely to be Unemployed in Today’s Job Market

The unemployment rate for them is higher than for the general population

Lucas Chung graduated in May with a hefty resume: A near-perfect college GPA, several internships and a stint running cross-country for Team USA. Since then he’s applied to hundreds of jobs, but has ended up with little more than a pile of rejection letters.

"I had high hopes but it's not really working out for me," said Chung, 22, who double-majored in political science and communications at St. Mary's College of California. "I'm feeling a little desperate."

Despite a surprisingly robust job market, recent college graduates have been having a harder time finding work than the rest of the population since the pandemic. This marks a sharp reversal from long-held norms, when a newly-minted college degree all but guaranteed a better shot at employment. Since 1990, the unemployment rate for recent grads almost always has been lower than for the general population.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.