FRB NY report on labor market for recent college graduates

Among other things:

  • Recent college graduates (age 22-27) had 4.8% unemployment rate in December 2023, compared to 6.7% for all young workers (age 22-27) and 2.3% for all college graduates.
  • In December 2023, 40.3% of recent college graduates and 32.4% of all college graduates were working in jobs where more than 50% of workers reported that a college degree is not required.
  • Median pay by major for early career and mid career college graduates is also listed.
    • Engineering and computer science majors unsurprisingly had high pay levels.
    • Some of the lower pay levels in early career are not surprising like theology and religion (vow of poverty?) and performing arts (elite or bust).
    • Among liberal arts majors (other than computer science), economics, mathematics, and physics do relatively well in pay levels.
  • Underemployment rate (working in jobs where a college degree is not required) varies from as high as 71.5% for criminal justice majors (most police jobs do not require a bachelor’s degree) to as low as 11.1% in nursing (presumably this means that most BSN graduates are in BSN-required jobs, as opposed to jobs that can be filled with an ADN). Education majors, though tending to be low paid, have low underemployment rates.
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Thanks for providing.

I’m hearing from my kids and their friends - so it’s just anecdotal - that there is a pullback.

I see it at work too - but that happens occasionally.

Hoping for all these kids chasing their dream that the market stays robust.