In June 2024, about **** percent of college graduates were underemployed in the United States. This number has remained relatively constant since throughout the last years. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York defines underemployment as "working in a job that typically does not require a bachelor’s degree".

Abstract (en): The Recent College Graduates (RCG) survey estimates the potential supply of newly qualified teachers in the United States and explores the immediate post-degree employment and education experiences of individuals obtaining bachelor's or master's degrees from American colleges and universities. The RCG survey, which focuses heavily, but not exclusively, on those graduates qualified to teach at the elementary and secondary levels, is designed to meet the following objectives: (1) to determine how many graduates become eligible or qualified to teach for the first time and how many are employed as teachers in the year following graduation, by teaching field, (2) to examine the relationships among courses taken, student achievement, and occupational outcomes, and (3) to monitor unemployment rates and average salaries of graduates by field of study. The RCG survey collects information on education and employment of all graduates (date of graduation, field of study, whether newly qualified to teach, further enrollment, financial aid, employment status, and teacher employment characteristics) as well as standard demographic characteristics such as earnings, age, marital status, sex, and race/ethnicity. ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.. Students within one year of attaining a bachelor's or a master's degree from an American college or university. A two-stage stratified sampling approach was employed. The first stage consisted of drawing a sample of bachelor's and master's degree-granting institutions from Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS)/Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) completions files. Institutions were stratified by control (public or private), by region, and by the proportion of degrees awarded in the field of education (over or under a specified number). Within each of these strata, institutions were selected according to size (size being measured by the sum of bachelor's and master's degrees awarded that year). The second stage consisted of the selection of a core sample of graduates (bachelor's and master's degree recipients) who received their degrees from the sampled institutions during the 1976-1977 academic year. Sampling rates of graduates differed by major field of study. The institution sample consisted of 300 institutions of which 30 were Historically Black Colleges (HBCs). The graduate sample was stratified by degree received and major field of study (vocational education, special education, other education, and noneducation). Data are representative at the national level. 2001-01-05 SAS and SPSS data definition statements have been created for this collection. Also, the codebook and data collection instrument were converted to a PDF file. The codebook and data collection instrument are provided by ICPSR as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Bachelor's Degree, 20 to 24 years (CGBD2024) from Jan 2000 to Jun 2025 about 20 to 24 years, tertiary schooling, education, unemployment, rate, and USA.

In May 2024, about 4.5 percent of recent college graduates were unemployed in the United States. This was a significant decrease from September 2020, when the unemployment rate among recent college graduates was at nine percent.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Bachelor's Degree, 25 to 34 years (CGBD2534) from Jan 2000 to Jun 2025 about 25 to 34 years, tertiary schooling, education, unemployment, rate, and USA.

In June 2023, about **** percent of recent college graduates were working in low-wage jobs in the United States. This is a slight increase from June 2021, when **** percent of recent college graduates were working low-wage jobs.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York classifies low-wage jobs as those that tend to pay around ****** U.S. dollars or less. Recent college graduates are defined as those aged 22 to 27 with a bachelor's degree or higher and not enrolled in further study.

As of February 2023, around **** percent of recent college graduates who majored in criminal justice were underemployed in the United States. Of those who majored in performing arts, about ** percent were underemployed.

Summary of the employment status of high school and vocational school graduates in various groups

In 2024, a record high of around ***** million students graduated from undergraduate programs at public colleges and universities in China. That number was more than double as high as the number of degrees earned at all levels of higher education in the United States. The vast number of graduates from Chinese universities originates from the increasing enrollment in colleges and universities across the country. Of the ***** million Chinese graduates of 2023, around **** million earned a bachelor's degree, whereas **** million earned a more practically oriented short-cycle degree. On a graduate and postgraduate level, around *** million master's and doctor's degree students graduated from public colleges and universities in China in 2023. What are the popular majors? In recent years, the most favored majors among Chinese bachelor students were *********************************************, while short-cycle degree students chose majors such as *****************************************************************. Meanwhile, ****************************************************************************************************** were among the least desirable subjects. However, even the popular, highly competitive fields of study do not always guarantee quick and successful employment after graduation. What are the labor market prospects for graduates? The graduate employment rate within half a year after graduation has been generally stable in China over the past seven years, exceeding ** percent on average. Those that struggle to find a job are usually graduates from less technical, quantitative majors who often lack both practical “hard skills” and “soft skills” such as communication, critical thinking, and managerial abilities. ********************************************** top employment rates as well as secure higher-starting salaries. The average monthly salary of a university graduate in China has increased by around ** percent in the last ten years. However, high rent and costs of living in cities like Beijing or Shanghai often force young graduates to return to their hometowns or to seek employment in the second and third tier cities.

In 2023, around 23.5 percent of high school dropouts were unemployed, compared to 15.8 percent of graduates. See the United States unemployment rate and the monthly unemployment rate for further information. Unemployment among high school dropouts and high school graduatesAs seen from the timeline above, high school graduates are generally employed at a higher rate than individuals who had dropped out of high school. Since 2000, the share of high school dropouts to be employed has risen and fallen. Unemployment of high school dropouts reached a low in 2020 at 7.5 percent, falling well below graduates. In 2021, 90.1 percent of the U.S. population who were aged 25 and above had graduated from high school. Unemployment of high school graduates not enrolled in college is much higher than the national unemployment rate in the United States. As of 2021, unemployment in the U.S. was at 5.3 percent, down from a high of 9.6 percent unemployment in 2010, the highest yearly rate in ten years. Nationwide, unemployment is worst among farming, fishing, and forestry occupations, with a rate of 5.1 percent in May 2022, followed by construction and extraction occupations and transportation and material moving occupations. Not only were more than 7.5 percent of high school dropouts unemployed in 2021, but working high school dropouts earned less on average than individuals of any other level of educational attainment. In 2020, mean earnings of individuals who had not graduated from high school were about 26,815 U.S. dollars annually, compared to 39,498 dollars among high school graduates and 73,499 dollars among those with a Bachelor's degree.

The number of graduates from colleges and universities across Taiwan

Characteristics and median employment income of postsecondary graduates five years after graduation, by educational qualification (Classification of programs and credentials - professional degree variant), field of study (Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) Canada 2016 - STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics and computer sciences) and BHASE (business, humanities, health, arts, social science and education) groupings), gender, age group and status of student in Canada (cross-sectional analysis).

According to a graduate outcome survey conducted in 2023, the total employment rate of recent graduates from Australian universities was the highest for pharmacy degree holders, with almost ** percent finding any type of employment after finishing their studies.

Number of persons in the labour force (employment and unemployment) and not in the labour force, unemployment rate, participation rate, and employment rate, by educational degree, gender and age group, annual.

These data are based on data collected as part of the national data collection operation on the professional integration of graduates of vocational licenses.

2 new indicators were added for the 2020 session:

Employment rate: share of employed graduates among all active (employment or research) or inactive graduates

Rate of paid employment in France: share of graduates in paid employment in France among all active (employment or research) or inactive graduates

This investigation was conducted

• in December 2022, 18 and 30 months after graduation, among the graduates of the Professional License of the 2020 session;
• in December 2021, 18 and 30 months after graduation, among the graduates of the 2019 Professional License session;
• in December 2020, 18 and 30 months after graduation, among the 2018 Professional License graduates;
• in December 2019, 18 and 30 months after graduation, among the graduates of the Professional License of the 2017 session;
• in December 2018, 18 and 30 months after graduation, among the graduates of the Professional License of the 2016 session;

• in December 2017, 18 and 30 months after graduation, among the graduates of the Professional License of the 2015 session;

• in December 2016, 18 and 30 months after graduation, among the graduates of the Professional License of the 2014 session;

• in December 2015, 18 and 30 months after graduation, among the graduates of the Professional License of the 2013 session.

The insertion rate is defined as the percentage of graduates in any job out of all graduates in the labour market. It is calculated on graduates of French nationality, from initial training, who entered the labour market immediately and permanently after graduation in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 or 2020.

The information collected on the salary relates to the net salary, including bonuses. The wages displayed correspond to the median values on full-time jobs. On the basis of these values, an annual gross salary is estimated, on the basis of a flat rate of change from net to gross of 1.3 (average data on private sector salaries).

The survey was carried out by universities under a charter whose provisions aim to ensure comparability of results between institutions. The overall coordination and operation of the survey is the responsibility of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research.

Sources of additional data:

% of graduate scholarship holders: observed data on the population of the labour market integration survey.

Regional unemployment rate: INSEE - 4th quarter 2015 for the 2013 session, INSEE - 1st quarter 2017 for the 2014, 4th quarter 2017 for the 2015, 4th quarter 2018 for the 2016, 4th quarter 2019 for the 2017, 4th quarter 2020 for the 2018, 4th quarter 2021 for the 2019, 4th quarter 2022 for the 2020 session.

Regional median monthly net salary: INSEE DADS 2013 for the session 2013, INSEE DADS 2014 for the session 2014, INSEE DADS 2015 for the session 2015, INSEE DADS 2016 for the session 2016, INSEE DADS 2017 for the session 2017, INSEE DADS 2018 for the session 2018, INSEE DADS 2019 for the session 2019, INSEE DADS 2020 for the session 2020 for 25-29 year olds employed full-time in the socio-professional categories "Frames and higher intellectual professions" and "Intermediate professions.

Legend: nd = not available (no respondents) ns = not significant (number of respondents less than 30).

Source: 18- and 30-month job placement survey of university graduates 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Collection: survey carried out by universities, treatments and synthesis carried out by MESR-SIES

Field: graduates of professional bachelor’s degrees 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 from universities in metropolitan France and the French overseas departments (excluding Paris-Dauphine and Gustave Eiffel University (for 2020 graduates)), of French nationality, from initial training, who entered the labour market immediately and permanently after graduation.

The paper deals with the potential relationship between higher education and entrepreneurial activities. Universities and other higher education institutions could be seen as boosting entrepreneurship in the region. University graduates could be more often involved in starting up a new business and the university itself could commercialize their innovations by creating academic spin-off companies. The paper aims to examine the potential effect of higher education on the probability of starting a business as well as its further success. Based on the data for 40 EU and non-EU countries, retrieved from a Eurobarometer survey, we conducted probit and IV probit regressions. These have tested the assumed relationship between higher education and entrepreneurial activities. Our results strongly suggest that higher education can often be very beneficial for starting up a new business and this seems to be one of the factors determining the success of new businesses. Furthermore, those respondents who attended courses related to entrepreneurship appear to be more active in starting-up a business and this seems to be also positively correlated with the company's future success. Interestingly, university graduates from Brazil, Portugal and India in particular, tend to appreciate the role that their universities have played in acquiring the skills to enable them to run a business.

Abstract

Unemployment rates for college educated youth in Jordan are high, as is the duration of unemployment. Two randomized experiments in Jordan were used to test different theories that may explain this phenomenon. The first experiment tested the role of search and matching frictions by providing firms and job candidates with an intensive screening and matching service based on educational backgrounds and psychometric assessments. A second experiment built on the first by examining the willingness of educated, unemployed youth to apply for jobs of varying levels of prestige.

First Experiment (September 2011 - May 2013)

The job candidate sample consisted of recent graduates of either community college or university in Jordan, who participated in Jordan NOW 2.0 program between December 2011 and November 2012. The participants were randomly assigned to a treatment or a control groups. The sample of enterprises consisted of businesses planning to hire workers in the next six months.

The experiment included: - Firm survey of 2,279 enterprises (September - November 2011) - Psychometric assessment of 1,569 individuals in Amman, Jordan (December 2011- January 2013) - Midline survey of 984 recent college graduates (October 2012) - Midline firm survey of 124 enterprises involved with the screening and matching pilot (October - November 2012) - Endline surveys of 1,291 recent college graduates (May 2013) - Administrative data on matching results

Second Experiment (May 2013 - October 2013)

The job candidate sample consisted of recent graduates from community colleges and universities, who participated in Yalla Watheefa (Let's Go Get a Job) program. The sample of businesses consisted of 33 firms with 51 job vacancies to fill 178 positions.

The second experiment included: - Baseline survey of 1,668 recent college graduates (May 2013) - Job Openings Labor Turnovers Survey (JOLTS) based panel survey of 350 enterprises (June - September 2013) - Firm survey of 50 large enterprises (October 2013)

In order to provide further evidence on how firms in Jordan fill positions, the team conducted a 4-round panel survey based off of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings Labor Turnovers Survey (JOLTS) on 350 firms in Amman that employ recent graduates.

Given that this second experiment did not result in any jobs, a follow-up survey to measure the treatment-control difference in employment outcomes was not conducted.

Geographic coverage

• Amman

Analysis unit

• recent college graduates;
• enterprises seeking to hire new employees.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Response rate

The attrition rates were 8 and 18 percent, respectively, for midline and endline job candidates surveys in the first experiment.

Portugal's graduate unemployment landscape between 2020 and 2024 reveals a striking imbalance across fields of study. Business sciences, administration, and law graduates faced the highest unemployment rate at 25.7 percent, while information and communication technologies (ICT) graduates experienced the lowest at 1.8 percent. The social sciences, journalism, and information field and arts and humanities presented the second and third-highest shares of unemployed graduates registered in employment centers, with 18 and 15.7 percent, respectively. Rising graduate numbers, persistent gender gap  The number of higher education graduates in Portugal has more than doubled since the late 1990s, reaching over 95,600 in the 2022/2023 academic year. Women consistently outnumbered men among graduates, with nearly 56,000 female graduates compared to 40,000 male graduates in the most recent year. However, this gender gap reversed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, where men accounted for 65 percent of graduates across all study cycles during the 2022/2023 academic year. Growing higher education enrollment  Despite the increasing number of graduates, the unemployment rate for the youth has been decreasing slowly since the end of 2023. The positive trend occurred as higher education enrollment continues to grow, with over 446,000 students in the 2022/2023 academic year. Universities attract more students than polytechnic institutes across all regions, with Greater Lisbon hosting the largest student population of over 147,000, despite not being the country’s region with the highest number of higher education establishments.

Philippines Unemployment: Grade Completed: College: Graduate data was reported at 673.000 Person th in Feb 2025. This records an increase from the previous number of 666.000 Person th for Jan 2025. Philippines Unemployment: Grade Completed: College: Graduate data is updated monthly, averaging 686.000 Person th from Jan 2021 (Median) to Feb 2025, with 50 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,038.000 Person th in Feb 2021 and a record low of 536.000 Person th in Dec 2023. Philippines Unemployment: Grade Completed: College: Graduate data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Philippine Statistics Authority. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Philippines – Table PH.G032: Labour Force Survey: Unemployment: by Age and Class.

Graph and download economic data for Employed full time: Wage and salary workers: High School graduates, no college: 25 years and over (LEU0252917000Q) from Q1 2000 to Q2 2025 about no college, secondary schooling, secondary, full-time, 25 years +, salaries, workers, education, wages, employment, and USA.