The College Fix

Seniors — don’t read this. The already dismal jobs report also includes this sobering number: 16.4 percent of people 18 to 29 are unemployed. This marks the sixth consecutive month with greater than 16 percent unemployment for the demographic.

Not much has changed this year: Job offers for college graduates at graduation rose a little for the class of 2011 over the class of 2010 — but even still, only 24 percent of 2011 grads had jobs lined up following graduation in May.

And, rampant underemployment is still an issue. This week, the New York Times termed the current subset of highly educated drifters, “Generation Limbo“:

Meet the members of what might be called Generation Limbo: highly educated 20-somethings, whose careers are stuck in neutral, coping with dead-end jobs and listless prospects.

And so they wait: for the economy to turn, for good jobs to materialize, for their lucky break. Some do so bitterly, frustrated that their well-mapped careers have gone astray. Others do so anxiously, wondering how they are going to pay their rent, their school loans, their living expenses — sometimes resorting to once-unthinkable government handouts.

“We did everything we were supposed to,” said Stephanie Morales, 23, who graduated from Dartmouth College in 2009 with hopes of working in the arts. Instead she ended up waiting tables at a Chart House restaurant in Weehawken, N.J., earning $2.17 an hour plus tips, to pay off her student loans. “What was the point of working so hard for 22 years if there was nothing out there?” said Ms. Morales, who is now a paralegal and plans on attending law school.

So, you know, Happy Labor Day Weekend!

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