For most U.S. workers—those without college degrees, that is—it is one of the best job markets in decades.
For most of the past two decades, the two groups largely tracked each other, in good economic times and bad. Now, though, just as job hunters without degrees are having one of their best runs, those with college educations are having one of their worst. And those with advanced degrees or in fields such as science and technology are having an even harder time than usual. Meanwhile, more Americans have college degrees than ever, just as artificial intelligence is doing more of the entry-level work companies typically hire young graduates for. A wrinkle: On an absolute scale, it is still easier to find a job with a college degree.
In fact, the unemployment rate for workers ages 22 to 34 who never graduated from college has rarely been lower in the past two decades, according to a new analysis by labor-market think tank Burning Glass Institute. The unemployment rate for degree-holders in their prime working years—ages 25 to 54—averaged 2.7% for the 12 months ending in July. That is well below the 3.6% rate for workers with just some college education, and 4.7% for people with a high-school diploma only. By contrast, college-educated workers ages 22 to 34 years old have only seen worse unemployment in the past two decades during the pandemic and the economy’s slow rebound from the 2007-09 recession.
What is just as remarkable is how different that is from the experience of job seekers who did graduate from college, says Gad Levanon, Burning Glass’s chief economist.
Zachary Blackmon tried to land a full-time job offer long before getting a bachelor’s degree in international business and operations management from the University of Cincinnati in May. Seventy applications later, he had gotten just three interviews.
