1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed

Associated Press ^ | April 24, 2012 | HOPE YEN

[Academiadotorg]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.

A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor's degrees.

Opportunities for college graduates vary widely.

While there's strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder. Median wages for those with bachelor's degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.

Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor's degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.

[M1903A1]

Thanks for citing Griggs v. Duke Power. I knew of the case and its relevance but I couldn’t name it just now.

Of course, now that college degrees mean little more than that the bearer paid a bunch of money for a sheet of paper, companies are once again bringing back “assessment tests”...ON TOP OF the degree.

[OldPossum]

Interesting.

I must admit that I am ignorant of assessment tests. Are they some kind of tests to determine what the student learned in college? Or sre they different from that?

I know that my college administered a series of tests along the lines of what we learned of a grouping of broad categories (history of western civilization, mathematics, etc), but you are saying that companies do this, so the subjects certainly would be different.

Please advise.

[max americana]

My cousin “accidentally” got on a waiting list for a college diploma he wanted because the registrar’s office were idiots (his description).

Eventually he got bored and saw the adult education course for HVAC and plumbing. Years later/fast forward, he owns pretty much the contracts for multiple condos and small hotels in downtown. Plumbers and electricians make more money than 9-5 clerks.

[M1903A1]

I’m not entirely clear on them myself...about the best I can figure out is that they’re geared towards understanding the testee’s thought processes as well as knowledge.