Excerpted from Don’t Start A Side Hustle! by Brian Page:
You want to hear something that will piss you off? If you get a college degree today, your chance of finding a job quickly after graduating is about the same as winning a coin toss. The data shows that nearly half of college grads are still looking for work a year later1 with many graduates searching years before landing their first post-degree job.
For those who do find work, only one in four will find a job that’s in any way related to the major they chose,2 and a full 40 percent of them will land a job that doesn’t even require a degree in the first place!3 That’s insane.
[1] Michelle Fox, “Out of Work and Desperate: Here’s What College Graduates Are Facing and What They Can Do About It,” CNBC, April 15, 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/what-college-graduates-can-do-about-being-out-of-work.html.[2] Brad Plumer, “Only 27 Percent of College Grads Have a Job Related to Their Major,” Washington Post, May 20, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/05/20/only-27-percent-of-college-grads-have-a-job-related-to-their-major/.[3] Elizabeth Redden, “41% of Recent Grads Work in Jobs Not Requiring a Degree,” Inside Higher Ed, February 18, 2020, https:// www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/02/18/41-recent-grads-work-jobs-not-requiring-degree.