The Newest Face of Long-Term Unemployment? The College Educated

[Anonymous]

Scary article raising questions about the future of work.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/business/long-term-unemployment-college-grads.html

The Newest Face of Long-Term Unemployment? The College Educated.
For years, only a small portion of the people experiencing long spells of joblessness were college graduates. That’s starting to change.

When the federal government released its August employment numbers on Sept. 5, the overall unemployment rate was still relatively low, at just over 4 percent. But underneath was a concerning statistic: The portion of unemployed people who have been out of work for more than six months, which is considered “long-term,” rose to its highest share in over three years — to nearly 26 percent.

[Anonymous]

Makes sense. As a low wage earner, I have never been unemployed for long. Plenty of work out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Makes sense. As a low wage earner, I have never been unemployed for long. Plenty of work out there.

It does make sense. Employers need workers to do work they don't want to do. As an employee, you have to do plenty of work you don't want to do (20+ years) before you get to hire someone to do it for you. If you don't like it, start your own business - but that means you get to do ALL the work you don't want to do.

[Anonymous]

If you can’t find work at the salary you want, you need to lower the expected salary or retool.

[Anonymous]

You have to keep your skills current, and yourself be hireable. I know folks late in their career who landed quickly within 90 days of being let go. I know others same age who have been searching for 2 years. The folks in the latter group have no idea what they are doing wrong- but this is anonymous and tbh they look, act, and communicate in a way that dates them, like they are relics, they come off as OLD, and no investment in interview skills or career coaching can help them at this point.

[Anonymous]

Being book smart doesn’t bring much value to an org when practically every piece of information you want is at your fingertips.

It isn’t hard to find college educated employees. Finding college educated employees employees that can think, analyze, process and apply that is a rarity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being book smart doesn’t bring much value to an org when practically every piece of information you want is at your fingertips.

It isn’t hard to find college educated employees. Finding college educated employees employees that can think, analyze, process and apply that is a rarity.

Finding employers who know how to create economic value by employing people who can think, analyze, process, and apply is also a rarity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being book smart doesn’t bring much value to an org when practically every piece of information you want is at your fingertips.

It isn’t hard to find college educated employees. Finding college educated employees employees that can think, analyze, process and apply that is a rarity.

Finding employers who know how to create economic value by employing people who can think, analyze, process, and apply is also a rarity.

People who can think, analyze, process, and apply it can work for themselves. Why are college educated people even looking to work for someone? Who promised you all a job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being book smart doesn’t bring much value to an org when practically every piece of information you want is at your fingertips.

It isn’t hard to find college educated employees. Finding college educated employees employees that can think, analyze, process and apply that is a rarity.

Information isn’t knowledge.

I guess this is all the jocks getting back at the nerds for making more money the last 10 years? The vitriol is stunning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being book smart doesn’t bring much value to an org when practically every piece of information you want is at your fingertips.

It isn’t hard to find college educated employees. Finding college educated employees employees that can think, analyze, process and apply that is a rarity.

Information isn’t knowledge.

I guess this is all the jocks getting back at the nerds for making more money the last 10 years? The vitriol is stunning.

+1
That's what I'm getting from this thread too. Which surprises me since it's DCUM.

[Anonymous]

There are more people looking for work than there are jobs available, for the first time since pre pandemic. If you remove food service industry and healthcare industry, we are back at 2008.
To note - healthcare industry will be taking a hit over the next year or two. This crisis won’t end soon.

To summarize, unless you are a bartender or a doctor - you are out of luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can’t find work at the salary you want, you need to lower the expected salary or retool.

There just isn’t work out there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being book smart doesn’t bring much value to an org when practically every piece of information you want is at your fingertips.

It isn’t hard to find college educated employees. Finding college educated employees employees that can think, analyze, process and apply that is a rarity.

Finding employers who know how to create economic value by employing people who can think, analyze, process, and apply is also a rarity.

People who can think, analyze, process, and apply it can work for themselves. Why are college educated people even looking to work for someone? Who promised you all a job?

Nobody promised anyone a job. However, I've seen economic research that suggests that larger organizations produce more economic value per employee than smaller organizations. Small business occupies a lot of people's time but is not particularly strong at innovation across the category and at providing high pay and benefits for a large share of its workforce. Think privately-owned home health care agencies vs. pharma companies. Think about the Silicon Valley companies that are highly valued. Even though they are less people-intensive than older industry companies, they have thousands of workers.

[Anonymous]

I work for a small company (<50 people) and we stopped hiring months ago. Our revenues are rising but management does not want to add any headcount in the current market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being book smart doesn’t bring much value to an org when practically every piece of information you want is at your fingertips.

It isn’t hard to find college educated employees. Finding college educated employees employees that can think, analyze, process and apply that is a rarity.

Finding employers who know how to create economic value by employing people who can think, analyze, process, and apply is also a rarity.

People who can think, analyze, process, and apply it can work for themselves. Why are college educated people even looking to work for someone? Who promised you all a job?

For decades people were told that getting a college degree would lead to a good job. And we generally need jobs to provide our health insurance in this messed up system.