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 and Higher, 20 to 24 years (CGRA2024) from Jan 2000 to Aug 2025 about 20 to 24 years, tertiary schooling, education, unemployment, rate, and USA.

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

High school graduates in their twenties have consistently experienced a higher unemployment rate than college graduates in the same age range. However, the unemployment gap between the two education groups has recently narrowed, reaching its lowest level since the late 1970s. This Economic Commentary shows that this narrowing coincides with a decades-long decline, one that began around 2000, in the job-finding rate among young college graduates.

As of February 2025, *** percent of recent college graduates who majored in Anthropology were unemployed in the United States. *** percent of recent college graduates who majored in physics were also unemployed.

College Majors and their Graduates

Job Opportunities, Salaries and Gender Disparities

By FiveThirtyEight [source]

About this dataset

This repository contains a comprehensive selection of lavish data and processing scripts behind the articles, graphics, and interactive experiences generated by FiveThirtyEight. With this dataset, you'll have the power to explore college programs and their graduates like never before and create stories of your own! Whether you use it to check our work or craft your own powerful visuals, we would absolutely love to know if you found it useful. Under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and MIT License respectively, our data is available for anyone who chooses to use it. Let us know how our resources turned out at

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Featured Notebooks

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Research Ideas

• Create an interactive comparison tool for researching college majors and their earning potential, so that prospective students can make informed decisions about what to study.
• Analyze the proportions of male and female graduates across different majors to uncover gender disparities in higher education.
• Explore the correlations between major categories, average salaries earned by graduates from specific major categories, unemployment rates for those with specific majors and more – to identify trends in job opportunities for certain specialties of study

Acknowledgements

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the original authors. Data Source

License

License: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) - Public Domain Dedication No Copyright - You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. See Other Information.

Columns

File: majors-list.csv | Column name | Description | |:-------------------|:----------------------------------------------------| | FOD1P | First-level division of the field of study (String) | | Major | The specific major of the field of study (String) | | Major_Category | The broader category of the field of study (String) |

File: recent-grads.csv | Column name | Description | |:-------------------------|:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Major | The specific major of the field of study (String) | | Rank | The rank of the major in terms of popularity (Integer) | | Major_code | The code associated with the major (Integer) | | Major_category | The category of the major (String) | | Total | The total number of students in the major (Integer) | | Sample_size | The sample size of the major (Integer) | | Men | The number of male students in the major (Integer) | | Women | The number of female students in the major (Integer) | | ShareWomen | The percentage of female students in the major (Float) | | Employed | The number of employed graduates from the major (Integer) | | Full_time | The number of full-time employed graduates from the major (Integer) | | Part_time | The number of part-time employed graduates from the major (Integer) | | Full_time_year_round | The number of full-time year-round employed graduates from the major (Integer) | | Unemployed | The number of unemployed graduates from the major (Integer) | | Unemployment_rate | The unemployment rate of graduates from the major (Float) | | Median | The median salary of graduates from the major (Integer) | | P25th | The 25th percentile salary of graduates from the major (Integer) | | P75th | The 75th percentile salary of graduates from the major (Integer) | | College_jobs | The number of college jobs held by graduates from the major...

Unemployment Rate for College Graduates - Historical chart and current data through 2025.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Doctoral Degree, 25 years and over (CGDD25O) from Jan 2000 to Sep 2025 about doctoral degree, 25 years +, tertiary schooling, education, unemployment, rate, and USA.

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 Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Bachelor's Degree, 25 years and over, Women (CGBD25OW) from Jan 2000 to Sep 2025 about 25 years +, tertiary schooling, females, education, unemployment, rate, and USA.

Unemployment rates of 25- to 29-year-olds, by educational attainment, Canada and jurisdictions. This table is included in Section E: Transitions and outcomes: Labour market outcomes of the Pan Canadian Education Indicators Program (PCEIP). PCEIP draws from a wide variety of data sources to provide information on the school-age population, elementary, secondary and postsecondary education, transitions, and labour market outcomes. The program presents indicators for all of Canada, the provinces, the territories, as well as selected international comparisons and comparisons over time. PCEIP is an ongoing initiative of the Canadian Education Statistics Council, a partnership between Statistics Canada and the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada that provides a set of statistical measures on education systems in Canada.

United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Doctoral Degree, 25 years and over was 2.60% in August of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Doctoral Degree, 25 years and over reached a record high of 4.50 in June of 2020 and a record low of 0.30 in February of 2001. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Doctoral Degree, 25 years and over - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on December of 2025.

United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Master's Degree, 25 years and over was 3.00% in August of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Master's Degree, 25 years and over reached a record high of 6.70 in April of 2020 and a record low of 1.00 in May of 2000. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Master's Degree, 25 years and over - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on December of 2025.

In June 2024, about **** percent of recent college graduates were underemployed in the United States. This indicated no change from the previous month.The Federal Reserve Bank of New York defines underemployment as "working in a job that typically does not require a bachelor’s degree". Recent college graduates are those aged 22 to 27 with a bachelor's degree or higher

United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Master's Degree, 16 years and over was 3.10% in August of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Master's Degree, 16 years and over reached a record high of 6.70 in April of 2020 and a record low of 1.00 in May of 2000. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Master's Degree, 16 years and over - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on October of 2025.

United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Professional Degree, 20 to 24 years, Women was 14.40% in September of 2024, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Professional Degree, 20 to 24 years, Women reached a record high of 100.00 in October of 2002 and a record low of 1.10 in January of 2022. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Professional Degree, 20 to 24 years, Women - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on November of 2025.

Sweden - Employment rates of recent graduates was 88.10% in December of 2022, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Sweden - Employment rates of recent graduates - last updated from the EUROSTAT on December of 2025. Historically, Sweden - Employment rates of recent graduates reached a record high of 88.70% in December of 2019 and a record low of 81.60% in December of 2009.

The statistic shows the highest unemployment rates among university graduates in China in 2010, by degree course. In 2010, the unemployment rate among financial administration graduates amounted to **** percent in China.

France - Employment rates of recent graduates was 78.60% in December of 2022, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for France - Employment rates of recent graduates - last updated from the EUROSTAT on December of 2025. Historically, France - Employment rates of recent graduates reached a record high of 83.10% in December of 2008 and a record low of 71.80% in December of 2015.

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 relationship between 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.