In sure the sequester is to blame.
“More than 40 percent of recent U.S. college graduates are underemployed or need more training to get on a career track,”
The dirty little secret is most graduates from elite Ivy League institutions will get jobs. Wall Street investment firms hire those women’s studies, history, art, and psychology majors if they come from the elite schools. A straight a history or psychology major at the average state university won’t get past the door at Goldman Sachs unless she/he has extremely strong connections (i.e. father is a corporate CEO). The Ivy League Schools, plus a few others (Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt) are all about training the children of the elites of corporate America, academia, the media, and government so most of the grads will be employed.
If you go to a tier 1 or tier 2 state University and earn a business, information technology, nursing, or engineering degree and decent grades, you’ll likely get an entry level job with a decent company. Some liberal arts grads might also find jobs in government or management training programs if they have excellent grades from a better state university. Grads from lower tier state schools or students with average or below performance in liberal arts are going to have a tough time in the job market. Four years of college did not provide them with skills an employer can leverage to increase sales and profits.
To summarize, if you are a child of the elites and can go to an Ivy League or near Ivy League school you are going to do well. Earn that ethnic studies degree and you’ll get a corporate job, government job, or you’ll be well set to go on to a prestigious graduate school. If you are the child of an average citizen, your best bet is to earn a degree that provides specific skills of value to potential employers.