What did you major in? What were the job opportunities like in that field? I'm asking not to be a ****, either. Did something happen in that field that caused the bottom to fall out of it?
I'm sure the amount of college graduates has increased by approximately a metric shit ton since the 70's.
It is like I tell my son, who wants to grow up and be a marine biologist and study sea turtles: that is awesome, enjoy the job for what it is and do not expect to make any money doing it. Better than making 200k a year and being miserable. Of course, he turned 10 today (God help me), and his career choices will change approximately 1239403 times between now and when he is 25.
I would imagine that 10k more than what you made has about the same buying power now as what you made then. And I think most would argue underemployment is a far bigger issue than unemployment for recent graduates. Again, in the region I'm in, if you made decent grades in a hireable major (accounting, supply chain, engineering, finance, etc) it's not hard to find a decent job.
my kids currently want to be trash men. actually might not be the worst career choice: http://www.latimes.com/local/cityhall/la-me-worker-pay-20150426-story.html#page=1 Garbage-truck drivers such as Turner, who make up the largest single job category represented by SEIU, last year made a median base salary of $73,707.
What happened to it? Is it all government work (where no one gets fired, you have to wait for retirement) or private sectors that aren't hiring?
No shame in driving the trash truck But yeah, as parents we hope our children aim a bit higher than that.
we are paying $20K over what I would have made if I graduated in 1997. you have no idea how insane that time was. and with inflation minimal over that time period, no I don't think it would take over $10K for an equivalent salary.
enormous growth rate from 12 to 14 to 18 to 25. That doesn't make it a viable field to target for jobs.
The reason for underemployment is the job field is saturated with people that aren't retiring and a lot more more graduates to choose from. People have debted themselves into not being able to retire.
Some of both. The ironic thing about the private sectors is there are some mid range jobs around, but they never hire anyone for them. The same jobs have been open for years. I have no idea what that is about.
the economy is international now and we're fighting against some ridiculously cheap labor. Not every nation has expectations of a new home, cars every couple of years and financial freedom to do entry level college grad jobs.
People aren't avging 40k jobs out of college since the recession. I know what jobs people are getting out of college because I've worked in and around colleges for more than 10 years.
