Here's a tiny little graph from the Wall Street Journal showing the number of college grads with minimum wage jobs. What's more troubling is that they are crowding out less educated workers from those jobs. So a college dregree does not guarantee a good job, but it seems required in order to get a bad one - or at least a sub-par one.
The Prospect picks up that idea:
People between the ages of 18-24 without a high school degree face an unemployment rate of 27.4% and an underemployment rate of 41.7%. Those in the same age group with only high school degrees face an unemployment rate of 19.7% and an underemployment rate of 34.6%.
In the 25-34 age group, the numbers are somewhat better, but still bad. Those between the ages of 25-34 without a high school degree have an unemployment rate of 15.4% and an underemployment rate of 29.2%. Those with only high school degrees have an unemployment rate of 11.2% and an underemployment rate of 19.9%. In short, it's terrible to be young in this job market, and really terrible to be in it without a degree.
These job problems heavily fall upon Black and Hispanic youth as well. Black youths between the ages of 18-24 and 24-35 face unemployment rates of 25.4% and 14.8% respectively, while Hispanic youths between the ages of 18-24 and 24-35 face unemployment rates of 16.3% and 9.2% respectively. These statistics are made worse when you consider the number of incarcerated youth of color, which are not counted in the BLS data used for this report.
If you are feeling ambitious, here's a link to a study which attempts to get to the root of the jobs crisis among the young.
