Where Underemployed Recent Grads Are Working Percent working in.
It’s harder for new graduates to find good jobs. It’s no secret that unemployment among recent grads remains higher than it was before the Great Recession. But in a recent report, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York went deeper and looked at underemployment among recent grads (defined as people aged 22 to 27 with at least a bachelor’s degree). The Fed researchers used data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to examine whether employed grads were in jobs that typically required a college degree, what those jobs paid, and whether they were working full- or part-time. They found that in 2012, about 44% of grads were working in jobs that didn’t require a college degree — a rate that, while about what it was in early 1990s, increased after the 2001 and 2007-09 recessions. Only 36% of that group were in what the researchers called “good non-college jobs” — those paying around $45,000 a year — down from around half in the 1990s. The share of underemployed recent grads in low-wage (below $25,000) jobs rose from about 15% in 1990 to more than 20%. About one-in-five (23%) underemployed recent grads were working part-time in 2011, up from 15% in 2000.
Where Underemployed Recent Grads Are Working  | Percent working in.  | 60%  | 50  | 40  | Good non-college jobs  | RECESSION  | 30  | Low wage jobs  | 20  | 10  | 10 112  | '90  | '95  | '00  | 05  | '95  | Notes: Recent college graduates' are those aged 22 to 27 with a bachelor's non-college  | degree or higher, college exc luding those currently enro aged lled in school. "Good non-college  | degree plobs are jobs higher, that paid luding an avera ge currently of $45 000 a year in 2012; "low-wage non-college jobs  | are jobs that paid an average of less than $25 000 a year in 2012.  | Source: U.S. Survey, Census Bureau and U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current 0*NET,  | Population Survey, March supp blement; U.S Depa rtment of Labor, 0*NET, via the  | Federal Reserve Bank of New York  | GRAPHIC BY PEW RESEARCH CENTER 