A new survey of college graduates from the last five years finds that the Great Recession has hit them hard, forcing them into low-paying jobs, often unrelated to their educations and leaving half of them expecting less financial success than their parents.
Don’t blame a spoiled generation, says Dr. Cliff Zukin, a Rutgers University political science and public policy professor who was co-author of the study.
“Eighty-three percent of them worked when they were in college,” he said. “They’re making sacrifices to go through with this and they’re coming out without a great job and with debt. That’s not a great situation.”
What’s so disheartening for Zukin is that only about one-fourth of U.S. adults are graduates of four-year colleges. If the most educated are facing such difficulties, it shows just how sluggish the labor market was during the recession and remains now. Zukin has previously studied unemployed older workers, many of whom are giving up on ever finding meaningful work again. Put it together, and it gives a dismal view of a broad span of the workforce.
The median starting salary for those who graduated between 2006 and 2008 was $30,000. For the 2009 and 2010 grads, it dipped to $27,000. And women graduates continued to make less than men.
Zukin said that with future salaries dependent on the initial one, it could mean the recent grads will have lower earnings throughout their careers.
Nearly half the graduates say they’re working at jobs that don’t require a college education. And many of those who left those first jobs didn’t find a better situation.
