New U.S. College Grads Now Have Higher Unemployment Than the Average Worker
7th June 2026
A fresh college degree used to come with a quiet edge in the job market. New grads had better odds of landing work than the average worker, and that edge held for as long as anyone tracked it. Not anymore. They now face higher unemployment than the workforce as a whole, and the gap is the widest on record.
What makes this strange is the timing. The reversal did not start with ChatGPT, and it did not start with the pandemic. It started in early 2019, before either one was on the radar.