Graduate unemployment, or educated unemployment, is unemployment among people with an academic degree.
Aggravating factors for unemployment are the rapidly increasing quantity of international graduates competing for an inadequate number of suitable jobs, schools not keeping their curriculums relevant to the job market, the growing pressure on schools to increase access to education (which usually requires a reduction in educational quality), and students being constantly told that an academic degree is the only route to a secure future.
Background Research undertaken proved that unemployment and underemployment of graduates are devastating phenomena in their lives. A high incidence of either are indicators of institutional ineffectiveness and inefficiency. Since the beginning of the economic recession in the US economy in 2007, an increasing number of graduates have been unable to find permanent positions in their chosen field. According to statistics, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates has been higher than all college graduates in the past decade, implying that it has been more difficult for graduates to find a job in recent years.College graduates are those aged 22 to 65 with a bachelor's degree or higher; recent college graduates are those aged 22 to 27 with a bachelor's degree or higher. One year after graduation, the unemployment rate of 2007–2008 bachelor's degree recipients was 9%. Underemployment among graduates is high. Educated unemployment or underemployment is due to a mismatch between the aspirations of graduates and employment opportunities available to them.
Investment risk College and Universities cost thousands of dollars a semester, not including study materials, books, room, and board. Tuition has gone up 1,120 percent in the last thirty years. Students have been given the impression that employers are looking for people who, through tests and grades, have demonstrated that they are high achievers. In many recent surveys, that has been proved otherwise. Employers are looking for people who have learned how to work well with others, and have gained substantial communication skills as well as critical thinking abilities. Graduates are not meeting employers needs. Students are also struggling to pay off their student loans. Without the desired, and needed, jobs graduates are accumulating debt and struggling to pay back their loans. 15 percent of the student borrowers default within the first three years of repayment. Many resort to returning to live with their parents and having to work multiple part-time jobs. Loans average about twenty to thirty thousand dollars. Higher education becomes an investment in which students are expecting to find a job with enough income to pay off the loans in a timely manner. It is an investment that students need to discern whether it will be beneficial or not, and whether it will help to advance their career in the long run.
By country
United States
In June 2013, 11.8 million persons were unemployed, putting the unemployment rate at 7.6 percent. The state of the economy is a large contributor to these numbers. In June, 2001 the unemployment rate was 4.6% After 9/11/2001, the unemployment rate skyrocketed to 5.7% in November 2001 and rose drastically in 2009 to 10% in October. In September, 2015, unemployment is reported by the Labor Department to be at 5.1%. However, some economists dispute that as accurate and claim that unemployment is much higher due to the number of people who have stopped looking for jobs. The lack of jobs available, and skills desired by employers, are beginning to prove to be another major cause for graduate unemployment in the U.S. Graduates are completing school with a degree and a head full of knowledge, but still lack work experience to impress white-collar employers.
Educational attainment in the United States, Age 25 and Over (2009) Educational Attainment Percentage Attained High school graduate 86.68% Some college 55.60% Associates and/or bachelor's degree 38.54% Master's degree 7.62% Doctorate or professional degree 2.94%
College majors sorted by employment rates, wages and graduate degrees
The table below lists data on the unemployment, underemployment, median wages, and graduate degrees of various fields of study, as reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the United States Census Bureau, and the American Community Survey, as of 2021. The unemployment, underemployment and early career figures are for recent college graduates (less than 28 years of age). College Major Unemploymentrate Underemploymentrate Median WageEarly Career Median WageMid-Career Share withGraduate Degree Accounting 3.3% 22.6% $54,000 $80,000 31.1% Advertising and public relations 4.6% 39.2% $50,000 $80,000 19.0% Aerospace engineering 6.6% 27.7% $72,000 $112,000 49.4% Agriculture 2.4% 52.1% $45,000 $70,000 21.0% Animal and plant sciences 4.4% 52.5% $42,000 $67,000 34.7% Anthropology 6.5% 53.3% $40,000 $65,000 46.3% Architecture 2.1% 29.1% $50,000 $85,000 38.7% Art history 5.3% 48.8% $48,000 $64,000 41.8% Biochemistry 4.7% 37.4% $45,000 $85,000 70.3% Biology 4.7% 46.8% $40,000 $75,000 62.9% Business analytics 2.2% 24.8% $66,000 $99,000 24.7% Business management 5.0% 55.1% $46,000 $75,000 24.6% Chemical engineering 4.1% 19.6% $75,000 $120,000 47.4% Chemistry 3.4% 39.5% $47,000 $85,000 65.4% Civil engineering 3.4% 15.1% $65,000 $100,000 38.6% Commercial art and graphic design 7.9% 33.5% $43,000 $70,000 11.8% Communication studies 5.8% 52.7% $47,000 $75,000 24.2% Computer engineering 3.7% 17.8% $74,000 $114,000 40.0% Computer science 4.8% 19.1% $73,000 $105,000 31.8% Construction services 1.4% 17.7% $60,000 $100,000 9.9% Criminal justice 4.5% 71.3% $43,900 $70,000 24.1% Early childhood education 3.1% 24.5% $40,000 $43,000 40.8% Earth sciences 3.6% 38.8% $40,000 $70,000 43.8% Economics 5.5% 35.3% $60,000 $100,000 42.6% Electrical engineering 3.2% 15.4% $70,000 $109,000 47.7% Elementary education 1.8% 15.2% $40,000 $48,000 49.0% Engineering technologies 7.1% 39.6% $62,000 $90,000 24.3% English language 6.3% 48.7% $40,000 $65,000 47.5% Environmental studies 5.1% 50.2% $45,000 $68,000 32.5% Ethnic studies 4.4% 53.7% $45,000 $66,000 49.7% Family and consumer sciences 8.9% 47.9% $37,000 $60,000 32.9% Finance 4.1% 28.7% $60,000 $100,000 30.6% Fine arts 12.1% 55.4% $40,000 $65,000 23.2% Foreign language 7.8% 50.1% $43,000 $65,000 50.5% General business 5.3% 52.4% $50,000 $80,000 25.2% General education 1.8% 22.9% $40,200 $51,000 50.1% General engineering 5.9% 25.3% $60,000 $100,000 37.0% General social sciences 5.4% 50.6% $43,000 $65,000 38.5% Geography 4.4% 44.5% $48,000 $75,000 32.6% Health services 5.2% 45.6% $40,000 $60,000 51.8% History 5.8% 49.1% $50,000 $70,000 50.2% Industrial engineering 4.6% 18.3% $70,000 $100,000 36.9% Information systems and management 6.4% 24.7% $54,000 $90,000 25.6% Interdisciplinary studies 4.8% 46.3% $41,800 $70,000 37.7% International relations 7.1% 49.3% $50,000 $86,000 45.6% Journalism 6.5% 47.7% $45,000 $75,000 27.0% Leisure and hospitality 5.3% 58.6% $38,000 $60,000 34.1% Liberal arts 6.2% 55.2% $40,000 $63,000 30.0% Marketing 6.6% 52.0% $50,000 $85,000 18.6% Mass media 8.4% 51.7% $40,000 $75,000 21.2% Mathematics 5.8% 30.7% $59,000 $88,000 52.4% Mechanical engineering 5.3% 15.8% $70,000 $105,000 39.2% Medical technicians 5.8% 59.5% $51,000 $71,000 24.6% Miscellaneous biological sciences 6.3% 48.6% $42,000 $70,000 60.9% Miscellaneous education 0.6% 16.7% $40,000 $56,000 56.6% Miscellaneous engineering 3.4% 22.9% $68,000 $100,000 45.8% Miscellaneous physical sciences 5.5% 23.2% $52,000 $104,000 57.1% Miscellaneous technologies 5.9% 48.4% $48,000 $80,000 18.5% Nursing 1.3% 10.1% $55,000 $75,000 29.3% Nutrition sciences 1.8% 45.0% $45,000 $60,000 46.3% Performing arts 7.6% 64.0% $39,000 $62,000 38.5% Pharmacy 4.8% 14.7% $55,000 $100,000 65.1% Philosophy 9.1% 57.1% $42,000 $68,000 56.5% Physics 6.1% 34.9% $53,000 $80,000 69.8% Political science 6.9% 49.2% $50,000 $80,000 53.6% Psychology 4.7% 47.6% $37,400 $65,000 51.0% Public policy and law 7.4% 49.4% $45,000 $70,000 46.1% Secondary education 2.6% 27.0% $40,400 $52,000 51.2% Social services 3.0% 27.7% $37,000 $52,000 52.4% Sociology 9.0% 51.3% $40,000 $61,000 38.3% Special education 2.7% 17.7% $40,000 $52,000 60.7% Theology and religion 3.6% 35.5% $36,000 $52,000 44.9% Treatment therapy 5.7% 41.3% $48,000 $69,000 50.7% Overall 5.1% 39.8% $50,000 $75,000 38.7%
Canada A 2016 labour market assessment by the Parliamentary Budget Officer reported that the underemployment rate for undergraduates under the age of 35 increased from 32% in 1991 to 39% in 2015. The equivalent rate for college graduates was similar until 2006. Since then it has fallen to 33%.
A 2017 study from Statistics Canada showed that, for both men and women, more than 24% of undergraduates in the arts, the humanities, the social sciences and the behavioral sciences are underemployed. In nursing, engineering, education and training, and computer and information science, the underemployment rate is less than 8%.
A 2015 study from the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers found that approximately 2/3rds of Canadian engineering bachelor's degree holders were not employed as engineers or in occupations relating to engineering. With a substantial wage gap between those employed in engineering and those employed elsewhere.
Australia A 2017 study by the Productivity Commission found that 20% of graduates are working part-time, while 26% of graduates are working full-time but consider themselves to be underemployed.
China The markets for China's graduates share much in common with those of other countries. China's recent upsurge in graduate unemployment relates to a number of things. One important aspect is its education policy-making and economic development as well as reforms in the economy and in its higher education. Recently the annual growth in the numbers of new graduates was estimated at 7,270,000 for 2014. It has been stated that the rate of young unemployed graduates should logically bring about a withdrawal from higher education. At 8% annual growth, the Chinese labor market will generate about eight million jobs, but these are mainly in manufacturing and require low-level qualifications. This rising enrollment made employment an issue and a serious challenge for China. Including the graduates who are not employed last year, the number of unemployed graduates may reach 8,100,000. However, in the first half of 2014, there were 67,000 Chinese private businesses failing. These businesses employed 34.2 percent of the graduates in 2011.
In the study 2010 Chinese College Students Employment Report it named 15 professions that had the highest unemployment percentages in China. The survey said that, between 2007 and 2009, for three consecutive years, law majors had one of the highest unemployment rates for a bachelor's degree. Another field of high unemployment for the last three consecutive years was in the fields of computer science and technology. In many of China's universities, professions majoring in English have had a high level of unemployment This tendency was still occurring during 2010 to 2013.
Historical sketch
Education policy-making From 1900 to 1911, China abolished the civil service examination system and established a modern schooling system based on Western models. In 1922 China adopted the American model, and this dominated the Chinese higher education system until 1949. In 1952 all of the higher education institutions were brought under the jurisdiction of the communist government, and the Soviet model was adopted to restructure China's higher education system in order to serve the manpower needs for building a socialist China.