It would still be half even if the economy were booming because of the ever increasing numbers of graduates with worthless junk educations like womyn’s studies, black studies, psychology.......
There’s plenty of people with decent degrees that have a hard time, civil engineering just isn’t for everyone, and not everyone chooses it, but an MBA, a scientific degree, and so on, are still meaningful. It’s also true that plenty of people are struggling to find transitioning jobs, or jobs that they can engage in after their bachelor’s degree but can try to carry them on into their master’s degree studies. Again, it’s complex, but the economy is in a mess, and that’s the problem.
Yes, it is hardly surprising that recent college graduates are taking the type of jobs that used to be done by ninth grade dropouts fifty years ago since they have about the same level of ACTUAL education.