42% of recent US grads are in jobs that don't need a degree

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorForty-two percent of America's recent college graduates are working jobs that don't require a degree, and Fortune says young people from Kathmandu to Paris are in the streets.

2. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorSo that's the one-sentence version: the diploma is arriving, and the job it was meant to unlock has not.

3. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorWhat exactly is being measured here? Because forty-two percent sounds like a lot of baristas.

4. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe New York Fed calls it underemployment.

5. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorIt tracks recent graduates, ages twenty-two to twenty-seven, and found about forty-two percent in jobs that don't need the degree in June.

6. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorOkay, but are they at least employed?

7. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorMostly. Fortune says recent grads' jobless rate hit five point seven percent in June, against four point one for all workers.

8. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorSo the degree is worth less than the people who skipped it? Who exactly benefits there?

9. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorNot the graduate. Criminal justice majors have the highest underemployment at sixty-five point eight percent, and performing arts follows at sixty-three point nine.

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    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorSecond place in performing arts. Brutal.

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    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorNow, how did we get here? Fortune points to a historian, Peter Turchin's theory, which it says he applies to the United States: elite overproduction.

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    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorElite overproduction. Is that a lot of graduates?

13. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorMore educated people than elite jobs. Turchin says the value of a diploma, quote, actually declines as recent-graduate unemployment rises.

14. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorSo the diploma loses value while sitting in the frame. That's a lot of wall space.

15. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorAbroad, Fortune says Nepal banned twenty-six social media platforms in September twenty twenty-five, and Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli resigned after protests.

16. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorAnd India?

17. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe Cockroach Janta Party grew out of a joke post by a thirty-year-old Boston University graduate. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned in July.

18. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorA joke post. That's a sturdy start for a party.

19. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorAnd in France, Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste called the idea of scrapping the Parcoursup admissions system pure demagogy.

20. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorSo what are the two sides here? Is the degree broken, or the job market?

21. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorOfficials defend the systems. Turchin's theory of elite overproduction is about too many graduates for the elite jobs. Each side has a point; neither has a placement office.

22. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorWhat should folks watch next?

23. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe next New York Fed update, and whether the protests abroad reach more ministers. Underemployment sits at forty-two percent.

24. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorA diploma now earns a degree of patience.

25. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorWell, at least the diploma still qualifies for the one job it was always sure to get: hanging in my hallway.