<p>"The study, released by the non-profit Center for College Affordability and Productivity, says the trend is likely to continue for newly minted college graduates over the next decade.</p>
<p>'It is almost the new normal,' says lead author Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist and founder of the center, based in Washington." ...</p>
<p>Ahh yes my daughters best friend is a part time cashier in a liquor store, graduated with a BS in math. Her other friend is has BS in math certified HS/special ed and went on several interviews recently for substitute position, 200 people interviewed, for a temp teaching spot that will only go from end of Feb till June, she is a part time waitress. Another obtained Chem Engineer degree, enrolled in PA school out of desperation, requiring another 3.5 years for another degree. </p>
<p>I have many others but wont bore the audience with the depressing statistics for class of 2012, with class of 2013 on their heals.</p>
<p>Another reason to keep the undergrad bills as low as possible.</p>
<p>Although I agree that college tuition, at least the sticker price, is far above what the most can afford - I think the flood of overqualified store clerks, etc. is more a result of the failing economy. There is simply not enough growth in the private sector to create the entry level jobs for so many BA and BS degrees.</p>
<p>It is a result of the failing economy as well as the changing economy. Increasingly, the two worst career advisors for young people are parents and schools. We live in a time of rapid economic revolution. The advice to most gets today is the equivalent of telling gets to get a stable job in the horse and buggy business the day the car is invented.</p>
<p>I saw something on the hollowing out of our middle class. Robotics, remote work and efficiency are replacing traditionally middle class jobs leaving a wealthy few, a shrunken middle & burgeoning bottom. </p>
<p>Policy is a major reason jobs will be drastically cut even further. High cost of labor here vs cheaper elsewhere, lawsuits here vs elsewhere, high taxes vs low taxes everywhere else, expanding markets and growing consumer base in other countries(China’s middle class is growing and has potential to be huge), govt debt will raise interest rates, collapse state economies, trigger massive inflation and lead to massive, rapid layoffs of govt workers.</p>
<p>So where is the future? Technology. Hard, complex technology jobs - if a low wage worker overseas can do what you do, forget it. Healthcare is all hands in but growth will slow due to the healthcare law. International business but you have to go to a great school to really break into it. Accounting, sales and skilled trades.</p>
<p>There actually is a significant shift in re-shoring of manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., being driven by:</p>
<ul>
<li>high oil prices driving up the cost of shipping</li>
<li>increasing wages in developing countries</li>
<li>concerns about lack of protection of intellectual property rights overseas, and</li>
<li>cheap domestic natural gas from the shale gas boon driving down domestic manufacturing costs</li>
</ul>
<p>Samiamy, where are these math grads located? I can see how a ChemE might have trouble given the industry-specific nature of that degree, but am curious about that one too.</p>
<p>When college graduates take positions they are overqualified for, and which are not preparing them for the careers they want, how do they make the transition to better jobs? Some employers for white collar jobs want only “fresh” college grads.</p>
<p>I believe that in order to avoid becoming one of the nearly 50% who are overqualified for their jobs, college students need to take a long hard look at their choice of college major. According to the NACE Job Outlook Survey 2013, the top 10 bachelor’s degrees for the College Class of 2013 are as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li> Finance</li>
<li> Computer and Information Science</li>
<li> Accounting</li>
<li> Business Administration/Management</li>
<li> Mechanical Engineering</li>
<li> Management Information Systems</li>
<li> Electrical Engineering</li>
<li> Computer Engineering</li>
<li> Marketing/Marketing Management</li>
<li> Economics</li>
</ol>
<p>I think you have to be practical and realistic in today’s job economy. For example, if you decide to pursue a degree in the liberal arts, you need to be prepared to either be unemployed or underemployed. I know several college seniors who have already received very good job offers. They will graduate with degrees in business, computer science, and computer engineering.</p>
<p>My company has already off-shored all of these disciplines except for Mechanical Eng and Marketing. It is easy and cheap to hire terrific finance and accounting people who know GAAP and US tax laws. I think the above is terrible advice.</p>
<p>I ALSO know at least a dozen college seniors with terrific job offers and they studied political science, comparative literature, Asian Studies (with fluency in Mandarin) and econ.</p>
<p>You don’t need a degree in business to get hired by a Fortune 100 company in a professional, career track job.</p>
<p>Doing a job in which most colleagues have substantially lower educational credentials and not getting an credit in the form of pay or title for your credentials. I understand that people should do their best in whatever jobs they have and that having a BA does not entitle anyone to a good job.</p>
<p>It’s one thing if the ‘overqualified’ college graduate works retail as a way to get a foot in the door and work his/her way up. My BIL with a degree in philosophy started out by managing a mini-mart and worked his way up to being a very successful VP marketing. </p>
<p>But…if the jobs are part-time with no hope of moving up then we are raising a generation of college grads who will be dispirited and depressed financially and psychologically. The gulf between their expectations and reality will be huge. They will feel duped, wasting four or five years working hard at getting a degree that isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. </p>
<p>I worry about my son getting a history degree. Worry, worry, worry. I got one myself and went to law school. But law school is a futile option these days also.</p>
<p>Math teachers can’t find jobs? I bet if they looked beyond their own communities they would be succeful in their job search. Maybe its time to move or to teach in a district that is less desirable so that they can do the job that they earned a college degree in. Teach.</p>
<p>To me this is an “old” problem. Back in the 70s the first question asked of me at virutally every interview (interviewing after college graduation) was “how many words per minute can you type.”</p>
<p>IME there is no such thing as a job with no hope of moving up. Even the fry guy at McDonald’s has a hope of moving up if he is that kind of guy. Even the receptionist at the office has a chance of moving up if she is the right girl for it. And, even the clerk at the grocery store has every chance of becoming VP of marketing.</p>
<p>I think the disservice we do our kids is to tell them they are overqualified for the work. Why? What classroom in the world makes anybody overqualified for anything in life?</p>
<p>This is the problem with seeing college as job training. Work is job training.</p>
<p>I agree with poetgrl and the often mistaken notion that new grads are “overqualified”. The new grads and often their parents think that. The hiring managers rarely do.</p>
<p>It is essential for college students to develop job skills when they in college, this in addition to academic and domain skills. Unfortunately many do not. They are then in for a shock when they graduate.</p>
<p>How to develop job skills while in college? There are many ways. (1) By working with a project group on campus, and not necessarily just on the “research” side. There is a clerical side, and an administrative side, a documentation side, etc. All too often these aspects of work are too boring for many. (2) Through internships, possibly in the most mundane of assignments, (3) Etc.</p>
<p>The students who focus on developing job skills while in college are often the ones with job interviews early on in their senior year, and a first job lined up before graduation.</p>