New College Grads Can't Get Hired - NY Times.

It’s because college kids today can’t do math, one line of reasoning goes. Or they don’t know science. Or they’re clueless about technology, aside from their myriad social-media profiles. These are all good theories, but the problem with the unemployability of these young adults goes way beyond a lack of STEM skills. As it turns out, they can’t even show up on time in a button-down shirt and organize a team project.

The technical term for navigating a workplace effectively might be soft skills, but employers are facing some hard facts: the entry-level candidates who are on tap to join the ranks of full-time work are clueless about the fundamentals of office life.

Source

College grads aren't getting hired because some lack communication skills, teamwork, or even experience (in things like related volunteer work or internships).

It makes sense. If all you do in college is attend class then you probably won't get far in life. If you actually do things that relate to what your major is then you have a greater chance of getting a job and possibly making a career out of it.

College grads aren't getting hired because self-described "entry level" jobs are posted with an addendum requiring either two-four years previous experience or a Bachelor's degree--or both, as is more often the case.

When you need a four-year degree to work at McDonald's, then of fucking course recent college grads aren't getting hired.

I don't think its as simple as a lack of STEM skills.

And then there's this. Every employer seems to want you to have previous experience in order to even get an "entry-level" job. But how the hell are you supposed to get exp when no one will hire you because you have no exp?

It's because of the economy and the unknowns of Obamacare. Many companies simply aren't hiring and the ones that are only hiring for part-time.

Seriously? The unemployment crisis has been going on years before Obamacare was a twinkle in Mitt Romney's eye.

I swear, if an asteroid hit the Earth right now, right-wingers would blame it on Obamacare.

Employment was higher when Obama was elected. The employment market never recovered.

I'd say it's not the graduates fault, it's the school. Working is completely different from school and school doesn't prepare you for work at all. I think more schools should require a co op program so that you actually know what you're going to be doing in your career.

For instance, like 98% of graduates of my college get a job on graduation. This is because of the co op program - you get 1 and a half years of paid experience.

If they had a gun, this wouldn't have happened....

This. No one wants to actually go through the trouble of training an entry level employee. Recent grads are not getting hired because there are no real entry level jobs.

I went 9 months working at Wal-Mart because I couldn't find a job. It's not that college grads are bad, it's simply because there aren't any jobs. I finally found a job that pays a living salary, started just today. It just takes a while. And you certainly won't find one if you don't get out there and actively look for jobs as well.

There's no reason why the modern college grad would be significantly less experienced, skilled or knowledgeable than their counterpart from just six years ago. The main reason why it's tough to find a job as a college grad is due to the recession causing the demand for labour to plummet and adding a huge number of older, more experienced and skilled workers into the labour market.

Over the past few years, labour participation rates and increasing demand for labour (from the A.R.R.A. and bank bailouts) has caused the unemployment rate to fall by about 2-2.5%. It would have fallen even further if not for the two debt ceiling crises, the sequester, the Europeans and the inability of the current U.S. government to enact further stimulus measures. However, it's been predicted that as the recovery continues, the U.S. will have a labour shortage in the near tfuture so this issue isn't really a long-term one.

Hahah this troll imitates Hokie's "mindlessly repeat the same bullshit over and over again" style of argument amazingly well.

A lot of undergrads choose a major because it's "easy". But seriously, if you've chosen your major based on how "easy" it is, do yourself a favor by dropping out of school and getting out into the work force. I always think of the Robert Frost poem "the road less traveled" when I hear about people with liberal arts degrees having trouble finding work.

Bottom line, there are very little jobs available.

My grandfather was a mechanical engineer, and never went to college. What it really boils down to is companies just keep moving the goal posts and petitioning congress for increased immigration quotas and work visas in order to shift the cost of education/training off them on onto the workers.

Its artificially increasing the labor pool so americans have to work harder and take on more debt simply to make a decent living. It makes workers more disposable and removes job security and lowers the cost of employment for employers, all at the expense of bending the american workforce over.

Some guy is pretending to be me to be funny or something, but is unknowingly correct here. Bureau of Labor Statistics states only 62.8% of Americans are in the labor force. That's pretty awful and the lowest since 1978!

Source: BLS.gov (official Federal agency)

Look at page 5 of the latest report....3rd line down.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

Recession sucks for most people, but young adults are the ones who took the worst hits. Things might get better when boomers eventually retire.

The recession has been over for several years now. However, the so called 'recovery' has been pathetic.

Well that has alot to do with the severity of the recession, some say the greatest downturn since the great depression.

It also has alot to do with the fact that companies use unemployment to their advantage to squeeze more hours out of workers for less pay as people are scared to look for new jobs and are more willing to be overworked. Why worker productivity has spiked at the onset of the recession while wages have largely decreased.

Nobody wants to hire more employees, when employees are largely still willing to take on more work for less pay. They are riding out this gravy train for as long as possible. Despite seeing record profits and having their cash holdings swell.

Gotta love the circular logic of getting experience before you are allowed to get experience. The way out of that of course (for the company not you you little peon) is to hire people who are have lots of experience, but are in enough financial trouble to where it will be many more years before they can retire if that day ever comes.

@ferrari2001: Congrats on the job man. Personally I've opted to be a contractor, and recently started a job that pays more than I've ever made in my life. The obvious catch is that in a few months I can either get hired or go find yet another temporary job.

You actually learn a lot about the harshness of corporations in the world of contracting, having zero job security means that looking our for number one needs to be your main priority because nobody else is going to have your interests at heart.

The job market just plain blows overall for all ages. My father got removed from his job of 35 years in accounting in Connecticut. That state is terrible for the job market, there's zero industry unless you live on a boarder and drive to NYC or Boston. My father was out of work for 3 years before he found work in New Hampshire and relocated, and I followed along. Still not the greatest market there, but it's a hell of a lot better than the tax hell hole of nothingness that is CT

Another employer survey, this one by staffing company Adecco, turns up similar results. The company says in a statement, “44% of respondents cited soft skills, such as communication, critical thinking, creativity and collaboration, as the area with the biggest gap.”

56% of the applicants who does apply for a job does have the skills needed for the position. This is really about the numbers and how many people who go to college and those who get out of college. People think that college is like magic if someone does not have the thinking skills before college because they lack the mental capability, more then likely they aren't going to gain that when they get out.

I'm not sure how many applicants applied, but if there was a 1,000 people, 560 of those would quality for the job. If you were to factor that number by 100, that would be 56,000 people with the skills needed for office life. The reality is pretty clear, not everyone who goes to college makes it in this world.

It's not that kids aren't educated enough or experienced enough for jobs these days so much as there are a limited number of positions, a large number of people applying to them, and because of this, employers can afford to be rather picky about who they hire as this will provide them better performing employees who also cost less to train. An applicant with a college degree and experience is going to edge out one who doesn't. This is fundamentally an issue related to the employment level.

Addendum: This problem will continue to be less of one as time goes on, the economy recovers, the boomers retire, and the unemployment rate (i.e., competitiveness of the labor market) goes down.

Some of that can be alleviated if some of those who think they need to go to college, but in reality prove that they do not belong there, would look into other kind of skilled labor trade jobs. Most of what is happening, I believe, is that people want cushy office jobs thinking that those kind of jobs are what leads to success, when it isn't.

Got college degree can't get a job.. no college degree can't gt a job.. WTH?!

More and more I'm not regretting joining the military.

The military is another place to learn a trade, especially in tech and aviation fields.

College isn't for everyone.

Simple as that. Do what you're best at and succeed in that instead, don't do what everyone else is doing.

Some economists, according to the Wall Street journal, are actually predicting a US labor shortage in the relatively near future. This projection is largely due to boomers who have hung on to jobs longer than they originally wanted to, an improving stock market, and the gradual increase in overall jobs over the last few years.

Part of me thinks that might be overly optimistic given polls indicating how many boomers plan to work for as long as they're able and their level of job satisfaction, but at most that would just delay the inevitable (barring another recessionary period).

I would say that there will be a shortage in labor in other area outside of business markets. There is always a need for skilled labor in the blue collar arena where people are not wanting to work and are why there are illegal immigrants filling said jobs. No one wants to be a bricklayer or a welder, they want that corner office with a view that they will not get, yet still go to college in an attempt to get that even though they should not be in college.

I dunno, I've heard good welders make 50-60K

Being that I work around welders (due to inspecting their work), I see and hear about what they own. They talk about their house, using their RV, they have nice new trucks with a gangbox full of the tools they use for work, talk about riding their big boy toys etc. They work part of the year and still earn upwards of $100,000 a year. Sure, they might be on a job site for 2 weeks working 12/7 until the job is done, but at $40+ an hour, that adds up. That does not include per diem which can add to what one brings in (and isn't taxable) if one is smart about it.

Also, they are less likely to face bankruptcy due to college debt needing to be paid off or other debt.

Just as college isn't for everyone, many blue collar jobs are not for everyone.

It's because universities offer pointless degrees in pointless subjects so people that shouldn't go to uni go to uni and give them money.

I don't doubt that those positions will be a part of the shortage as well, but the articles I've been reading have been specifically point at STEM positions being some of driest (projected). Mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and IT are projected to have a huge retirement bloc come due within a relatively short time period.

I really fucking hope that this is the case.

11 High Paying Six Figure Jobs without a College Degree

Final Word

Believe it or not, many jobs that pay six figures do not require a four-year college degree. The examples listed here are just a few of the careers to consider in lieu of attending college. Pay varies depending upon experience, training, and physical location, but the average salaries for the jobs listed above are proof that making over $100,000 each year without a college degree is possible.

Nuff said.

I've learned through personal experience that most people get employed through references, which is fucked up. The world is so unfair.