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Joseph Asante-Adampah
Professor Susan Lago
Eng-1100 College Writing
16th April 2014

Graduate Unemployment
Every now and again we hear of the importance of college education. One cannot go
through newspapers, websites and magazine without the drums of the constructive effects of
college education being heard. We can all acknowledge that college education is very important
particularly given the job environment we presently are experiencing. The rising rate of
unemployment has given credence to the importance of college education more than ever before.
We often hear of the existing low unemployment rate during recessionary periods all drumming
the tunes of college education. However if one goes behind these numbers the results are not
quite as rosy people are made to believe.
In order to correctly analyze the graduate unemployment rate it is important to consider
the current rate of the U.S economy. Many of these graduates are increasingly finding it harder
making the transition from student to worker. Some are also oblivious of the demand of the work
market and are therefore relegated to taking jobs they are over qualified for. It is accurate that
unemployment rate for graduate is low among people with college degrees. however the problem
arises when one begin to analyze these numbers. A greater percentage of these numbers. for
example one of the issues people fail to realize is that the graduate unemployment number is
slightly misleading. The reason being that a greater portion of graduates are underemployed.
This is because the recession has forced these people to take up jobs they would otherwise not
take in a vibrant economy. While many people with college degrees are not on the
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unemployment line many of the work they do not require a college education. This means that
their skills are seriously being underutilized.
So yes the unemployment rate is low for college degree holder but this is because they
have easily taken over jobs that were reserved for people with only high school degrees. One of
the issues that brings this problem is that college students are picking the wrong majors and are
also majoring in majors that renders them ill-equipped for the demands of the work environment.
There is always a mismatch as graduate these days are not trained to been readily employed. We
must remember that the curriculum has not changed much from what it used to be however, the
job environment has to a considerable degree. Because of this graduates with no experience in
the job environment are forced to take less paying jobs that they are over-qualified for.