Why More College Graduates Are Stuck in Jobs That Don’t Require Degrees

They thought they did everything right: took on debt, sat through four years of lectures and labs, pulled all-nighters to write papers and cram for exams, and finally earned their college degrees. Now they’re left working jobs that high schoolers could land—ringing up customers at clothing stores, pulling espresso shots at coffee shops and nannying to make ends meet.

Meet today’s growing class of underemployed college graduates, the term economists use to describe young people stuck in a job that doesn’t require the degree they earned. They made up almost 43% of US graduates age 22 to 27 as of December 2025, up more than 3 percentage points for the year and the highest rate since the pandemic, according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank. That’s a significant increase over just 12 months, though the rate still tracks below those logged during the Great Recession.