1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed (How's that "Hope and Change" thing working out?)

google ^ | 4/23/2012 | HOPE YEN, Associated Press

[tobyhill]

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.

[kearnyirish2]

Some of those degrees were earned by people who merely wanted a job the required any degree (military officer, policeman). Now that those jobs have dried up in our area, a lot of criminal justice degrees are wondering what they’ll do now...