re: Recent college graduates unemployment has surpassed total unemployment for the first time

Graph is stupid. Break it out per major and you will get a far different story.

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Corporate greed and bad employees aren’t mutually exclusive, both are a huge problem

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Definitely.

But in my anecdotal experience I've seen more than a few times leadership pushing for increased productivity while reducing costs, all while the overall performance of the company is stronger than ever.


Kinda tough to swallow an increase in stick and a decrease in carrot during the good times versus the times where things were less positive.

For example, my company just restructured how bonuses and employee relocation benefits are handled. Used to be that bonus was based on salary at the time the bonus was given, now it's based on a blend of the previous twelve months. Before there were relatively generous moving bonuses to take some of the sting out of up and moving your life at a relative moment's notice. Practically anyone who was asked to relocate got that package. Now it's been changed to only VP and above level (So like ~150 people out of a 12k employee company). Those are relatively small potatoes in the grand scheme, but it's just an example of some of the bullshite going on at these large companies. We got a new CEO a year an a half ago after the previous guy retired after a very successful and lengthy run. The new guy's first order of business was to cut a bunch of quality of life benefits for his employees (who surprisingly came up through the ranks as a technical guy and isn't some MBA dweeb)

We are in the midst of the best 4 year run in company history.

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As of Feb 2025, unemployment for people with a BACHELOR'S Degree was 2.5%, per Dept of Labor.

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But that’s everyone with a bachelors degree. Not just recent grads.

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The real problem is that its not reasonable to expect an 18 year old to know exactly what they want to do for the next 40 years. Most don't.

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They don’t need to know “exactly what they want to do for the next 40 years.” I was a ChE grad. What I do for a living today is nothing like what I planned in college, but my degree has still been incredibly valuable.

There are certainly some degree programs that pigeonhole you into specific jobs, and people who don’t know if they want those specific jobs probably shouldn’t get those degrees. But there are plenty of degree programs with value that also provide broad job prospects across multiple industries.

If you get a useless degree because you don’t know what you want to do with your life yet, that’s a stupid decision. Either go to school for something useful or enter the workforce until you figure it out.

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College really only morphed into a "job training" in the 70s and 80s, and quickly turned in the 90s back into what it originally was. A place to get a degree that increased your critical thinking, intelligence, etc. Often times that leads to a job and career skills. Not always.

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I’m not one of those people who consistently shits on the idea of a liberal arts education. I think there’s value in becoming more well-rounded. But going to college for that reason alone is a luxury. It’s something people should only do when they have enough financial security to spend 4 years outside of the workforce with no guarantee of any return on the investment.

The other 99% of the population should have a better reason.

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Gen Z have bypassed the college scam are going back into skill trades. Things their parents and grandparents did that achieved the American dream and gave them a skill that can’t be replaced.

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Interesting.

IMO colleges need to be held far more accountable for worthless degrees.
This is a good start: Nearly 10 million student borrowers could soon be in default, and the Education Department wants to hold schools responsible.

Y’all need project controls?

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The job market sucks right now

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It's a challenging case to make given that unemployment remains relatively low, at 4.2% in April 2025, and has remained within a narrow range of 4.0% to 4.2% since May 2024.

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There are certainly some degree programs that pigeonhole you into specific jobs, and people who don’t know if they want those specific jobs probably shouldn’t get those degrees. But there are plenty of degree programs with value that also provide broad job prospects across multiple industries.

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Until AI is used by the HR department to screen for desirable applicants.

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If you get a useless degree because you don’t know what you want to do with your life yet, that’s a stupid decision. Either go to school for something useful or enter the workforce until you figure it out.

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What do you define as a useless degree? English? Philosophy? Theoretical Physics? Journalism? Who decides?

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I’m not one of those people who consistently shits on the idea of a liberal arts education. I think there’s value in becoming more well-rounded. But going to college for that reason alone is a luxury. It’s something people should only do when they have enough financial security to spend 4 years outside of the workforce with no guarantee of any return on the investment. The other 99% of the population should have a better reason.

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Agreed that it is a luxury, but ultimately should be a useful and beneficial luxury to the broader society.

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Recent college graduates unemployment has surpassed total unemployment for the first time

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Both you and the tweet author clearly struggle with charts. The “first time” was back in 2015. It’s been sustained below since 2021.

Additionally, recent college graduates are still employed at a higher rate than non college graduates of the same age. Unemployment for college graduates between 22-27 is 5.8% compared to 6.9% unemployment for all workers aged 22-27.

That gap is closing, but my suspicion is that it has more to do with college graduates making up a larger part of the work force, so the difference between that subset and the whole set gets smaller because of the math.

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Mike Rowe is somewhere chuckling right now

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I really like Mike Rowe but this data doesn’t really help or hurt his case. This says more about 22-27 unemployment than it does about trades vs degrees.