The Crisis of Unemployed College Graduates

Colleges must help prepare the class of 2021 to navigate the worst job market in decades

By Jeffrey Selingo and Matt Sigelman. Mr. Selingo is the author of “Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions” and a special adviser and professor of practice at Arizona State University. Mr. Sigelman is CEO of Burning Glass Technologies. Excerpts:

"since the start of the pandemic, hiring for entry-level college graduate positions has fallen 45%, more than for any other category of education."

"those who graduate into underemployment are five times more likely to remain stuck in mismatched jobs after five years compared with those who start in a college-level job. Ten years later, three-quarters of workers underemployed at the five-year mark haven’t progressed."

"entry-level openings for college graduates as logistics analysts, distribution managers and loan officers have risen, up nearly 30% since 2019, and each of these jobs pays close to $50,000 a year. Even in fields where there are far fewer openings today than before, entry-level opportunities for recent graduates remain, especially for jobs such as business and financial analysts and software and web developers, both of which pay over $50,000."

"psychology, a perennially popular major with more than 100,000 graduates a year, is a field with limited prospects for those who don’t pursue advanced studies. But a psychology major who acquires data analysis skills through research or internships can unlock more than 100,000 additional entry-level jobs paying on average $60,000, versus $39,000 for psychology majors overall."