Half of college graduates do not use skills learned in their degrees at work, study finds amid growing concern over the value of higher education

Around half of college graduates will be working in jobs where their degrees are not needed and go down a different career path than they previously planned.

A new study that kept tabs on the the career paths of more than 10 million college graduates shows that 52 percent of them are underemployed in the first year after they earn their degrees.

The study also indicates that 45 percent of college graduates will not have a job that requires the skills of a degree or a degree in general five years after they graduate. 

The data was released earlier this month by the Burning Glass Institute and the Strada Education Foundation.

The researchers who conducted this study analyzed the résumés of workers who graduated between 2012 and 2021.

Several factors such as race, gender, and choice of university were also taken into account. 

A new study shows that 52 percent of college graduates are underemployed in the first year after they earn their degrees

The study also indicates that 45 percent of college graduates will not have a job that requires the skills of a college degree or a degree in general five years after receiving their diplomas

The researchers who conducted this study analyzed the résumés of workers who graduated between 2012 and 2021

The conclusion of the study comes after the drop in Americans' confidence in higher education.

According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans who expressed this confidence fell from 57 percent to 36 percent in the past decade.

'You're told your entire life, "Go to college, get a bachelor's degree and your life is gonna be gravy after that,"' Northern Kentucky University graduate Alexander Wolfe told the Wall Street Journal.

'In reality, it hasn't really helped me that much.' 

According to the study, 68 percent of those graduates who studied within the public safety and security field at school were underemployed at the five-year mark.

Out of the 20 professional fields listed in the data, business majors found themselves at a 57 percent underemployment rate.

Engineering and health professions and related programs were the top two workforces on the list, with only 26 percent and 23 percent respectively feeling that they were not using the skills taught in their focus of study.

The data from the Burning Glass analysis of 2022 U.S. Census Bureau indicated that bachelor's degree holders in college-level jobs earn nearly 90 percent more than people with just a high-school diploma in their 20s.

'It’s not that a degree isn’t worth it,' said Matt Sigelman, president of Burning Glass Institute. 'It’s worth it to too few people.'

The data was released earlier this month by the Burning Glass Institute and the Strada Education Foundation

Out of the 20 professional fields listed in the data, business majors found themselves at a 57 percent underemployment rate after five years 

Wolfe, who majored in integrative studies, helped him land jobs in sales, retail and food service.

The college graduate now wishes he'd 'taken time off before college' to explore any potential career options.

He also admitted that he regrets taking an entry-level sales job in logistics after spending months of job hunting following his college graduation.

Wolfe believes that taking a job in that specific industry 'made it harder' for him to find other career options.

'I would stress to anyone out there, hold out as long as you can' for the right first job, he said. 

'You don’t want to pigeonhole yourself into something you don’t want to do.'

According to Stephen Moret, everyone needs to bee thinking of 'that first post-college job as a high-stakes milestone'

The 2024 study found that most of the college graduates who don't find work in which their degrees can come into good use are severely underemployed, meaning that they're in jobs that only require a high school education or less.

A total of 88 percent of those graduates are currently severely underemployed after five years, finding themselves working in office support, retail sales, and food service.

'We all need to be thinking of that first post-college job as a high-stakes milestone, and give it the attention it deserves,' said Stephen Moret, Strada’s president and chief executive. 

An internship can also make a difference in job factors, especially since it can improve the odds of a graduate landing a college-level job after graduation.

The study shows that the rate of underemployment for graduates five years after college fell by 40 percent for social-science majors if they had an internship

The study conducted by the Burning Glass Institute and the Strada Education Foundation shows that the rate of underemployment for graduates five years after college fell by 40 percent for social-science majors if they had an internship.

Several colleges like Tufts University require their students who are environmental studies majors complete at least 100 hours of an internship.

According to WSJ, about 50 percent to 70 percent of Tufts University's students who graduate with those degrees go into environmental work afterward.

This data also includes Tufts students who decide to make environmental students a second major.

Brennan Bence, a graduate from Dakota Wesleyan University, admitted that he wished he got more internship experience before graduating.

Bence majored in theater with a minor in business, but realized that he wanted to going into tech marketing or online gaming while he was still in school.

The 2022 graduate had already done work in theater and unfortunately missed out on internships in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

'I kind of robbed myself of a lot of those experiences,' he told the WSJ.

He currently works as an office administrator in Washington for the local county's public defender office, and said that 'he may have to pursue an MBA' in order to work in tech or gaming.

A postgraduate named Maroua Ouadani also had issues after the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Several colleges like Tufts University require their students complete at least 100 hours of an internship

Ouadani revealed to WSJ that she struggled in her job in sales at a travel company in 2021.

She worked remotely for the company, but later had issues once she worked in-office after most of her co-workers continued to work from home.

The college graduate left that job to become an executive assistant for a social media influencer, which ended less than one year later.

A staffing agency later placed Ouadani in an administrative-assistant position after more than a year of job hunting struggles.

Now, she plans to rely on her connections and entrepreneurship rather than her hospitality degree.

'This job market shows how replaceable you are,' she stated.