Where Data Tells the Story
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This chart compares the unemployment rate of recent college graduates (ages 22 to 27) with that of all workers in the U.S. from 1990 to June 2025, using data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
From 1990 through most of the 2010s, new grads typically enjoyed lower unemployment than the overall national unemployment rate.
Just before the COVID-19 pandemic new grads briefly had a higher unemployment rate, with AI advances post-pandemic exacerbating the trend.
In June of 2025, recent college grads faced a 4.8% unemployment rate, higher than the 4.0% rate for all workers.