Most 2008 college graduates have not found a job -- any job -- that requires a college degree in the one year since they left their higher education.
From McClatchy:
New monthly survey data from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston finds that during the first four months of 2009, less than half of the nation's 4 million college graduates age 25 and under were working in jobs that required a college degree. That's down from 54 percent for same period last year.
...
Sum of Northeastern University said college grads who begin their careers in lower-paying jobs below their education level often take seven to nine years to catch the earnings of fellow grads who start out at jobs that require a college degree.
...
To help unemployed 2008 graduates find work, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown , Pa., began an intensive 100-day effort in April to assist alumni with their job search. Career counselors are providing resume critiques, mock interview exercises, and sending resumes to employers in the graduates' chosen fields.
A college education is no longer the key to a white collar job.
There are too many graduates and not enough employment.
Note that this trend had already started before the collapse of the housing bubble. Among 2007 graduates, only 54 percent were employed in a job that required a college degree a year after graduation.
Let me repeat:
We have too many college graduates.
And not enough jobs.
Our government's labor policy seems to have two principles.
The first is, "Those Jobs Are Gone and They Are Never Coming Back."
The second is, "Retrain Yourself for the Jobs of the Future."
Right.
At one of the President's recent Town Hall meetings, he scolded distressed working class people about their problems finding jobs. He told them, "You will need to go back to college every few years and re-educate yourself."
Hunh?
There aren't enough jobs for the college graduates that we have -- a trend that started before our current catastrophe really got catastrophic.
What in the world is he talking about?