Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

randalolson.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 320 posts

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#41

Post by lispisok »

ilamont wrote: post #25
Rotdhizon wrote: post #12

This is the easiest niche to pick on but I am mid career for cybersecurity. I spend a decent amount of time trying to advise people away from this career field for college. So so so so so many people are going to college for cyber not realizing when they graduate, they are in totality unemployable. Really I'm not sure how new people to tech could even enter the industry, it seems like at the lower levels the entire i…

> I spend a decent amount of time trying to advise people away from this career field for college. So so so so so many people are going to college for cyber not realizing when they graduate, they are in totality unemployable. My spouse knows a recent grad who took this path through an undergraduate program at the University of Maine ( https://www.uma.edu/academics/programs/cybersecurity/cyberse... ). As you said, he…

Anytime you see a lot of media claiming there is a shortage of some career it's a negative signal. The field will shortly be flooded

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#42

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

Rotdhizon wrote: post #12

This is the easiest niche to pick on but I am mid career for cybersecurity. I spend a decent amount of time trying to advise people away from this career field for college. So so so so so many people are going to college for cyber not realizing when they graduate, they are in totality unemployable. Really I'm not sure how new people to tech could even enter the industry, it seems like at the lower levels the entire i…

I personally as a general rule don’t hire people who work in cybersecurity if they were not traditional developers first. The chances of you understanding “cybersecurity” without also understanding how general software works is extremely low.

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#43

Post by rfgplk »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #36
827a wrote: post #21

I would postulate that there are two reasons why this is happening. 1. Pessimistic, harsh, etc: the quality of US graduates has been falling. Reading comprehension has been on a downward trend over the past decade. Mental illness, depression, and attention disorders are on the rise. Grade inflation, social media, AI availability, we spent years talking about how all of these things would be bad, and now the experimen…

> Pessimistic, harsh, etc: the quality of US graduates has been falling. Reading comprehension has been on a downward trend over the past decade. Mental illness, depression, and attention disorders are on the rise. Is your assertion that if fewer graduates struggled with these things, companies would post more jobs? Asking because there aren't enough actual¹, realistic² jobs to employ the current pool of job seekers.…

> ¹ Not ghost jobs, not fakacancies, not agendas that are anything other than hiring as advertised.

Is there any hard data on the number of ghost jobs out there? Even estimates?

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#44

Post by singpolyma3 »

Rotdhizon wrote: post #12

This is the easiest niche to pick on but I am mid career for cybersecurity. I spend a decent amount of time trying to advise people away from this career field for college. So so so so so many people are going to college for cyber not realizing when they graduate, they are in totality unemployable. Really I'm not sure how new people to tech could even enter the industry, it seems like at the lower levels the entire i…

Are the companies hiring fewer people than they need? If not then perhaps the fault is not with their standards but with an oversupply of applicants.

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#45

Post by t-3 »

krackers wrote: post #22
gravypod wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've known a few college graduates who have come up in this market. From what I see, the common pattern is to try and get a position in your field for 3-10 months. Somewhere in that time range, they burn out. Then they apply for something field related for a few months. Then anything. Once they've exhausted all options they usually give up. We will likely have a similar concept in our country as China's "lying flat"…

>as China's "lying flat" movement No, you miss that "lying flat" is only possible when cost of food/living is low and housing is abundant.

Our lying flat is opiods. Generating dark money and killing off the useless, isn't late-stage capitalist empire great?

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#46

Post by soupspaces »

conception wrote: post #10
andy99 wrote: post #8

Are there people who think college education is a shortcut to generic employment? This seems like a very misleading statistic. Average earnings (including those unemployed), etc might be better. Telling me that it’s harder to get a professional job that I’m qualified for than it is to walk up to a McDonald’s or whatever and get a job is not shocking.

> college education is a shortcut to generic employment That was/is the societal narrative for the last forty plus years, yes.

How else would you sell it?

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#47

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

chucky_z wrote: post #40
Rotdhizon wrote: post #12

This is the easiest niche to pick on but I am mid career for cybersecurity. I spend a decent amount of time trying to advise people away from this career field for college. So so so so so many people are going to college for cyber not realizing when they graduate, they are in totality unemployable. Really I'm not sure how new people to tech could even enter the industry, it seems like at the lower levels the entire i…

The absolute wild opposite (for cybersecurity) to this is that higher level individuals are in such insane demand that if you are underpaid even during the current wage suppression, going to over market should be almost completely trivial.

Of course, people actually good at security are rare and in high demand. This is totally aligned with OP’s statement. IMO you shouldn’t even be thinking of going into cybersecurity straight out of college. There’s just too much you have to learn about how software works for it to be a reasonable first job out of university. There will always be exceptional people, of course, but as a general rule I’m not hiring new grad cyber folks. Seems dumb

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#48

Post by SL61 »

conception wrote: post #10
andy99 wrote: post #8

Are there people who think college education is a shortcut to generic employment? This seems like a very misleading statistic. Average earnings (including those unemployed), etc might be better. Telling me that it’s harder to get a professional job that I’m qualified for than it is to walk up to a McDonald’s or whatever and get a job is not shocking.

> college education is a shortcut to generic employment That was/is the societal narrative for the last forty plus years, yes.

Yep, I remember being told that it doesn't matter which major I pick because there would be jobs that wanted just any bachelor's degree.

I'm sure high school kids are still being told that today, and it might not be entirely false. Decent-paying jobs have certainly become more specialized for specific college majors, but I still see local job listings on the lower end of the white collar pay scale that ask for a BA/BS without expressing preference for a specific major.

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#49

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

rfgplk wrote: post #43
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pessimistic, harsh, etc: the quality of US graduates has been falling. Reading comprehension has been on a downward trend over the past decade. Mental illness, depression, and attention disorders are on the rise. Is your assertion that if fewer graduates struggled with these things, companies would post more jobs? Asking because there aren't enough actual¹, realistic² jobs to employ the current pool of job seekers.…

> ¹ Not ghost jobs, not fakacancies, not agendas that are anything other than hiring as advertised. Is there any hard data on the number of ghost jobs out there? Even estimates?

> Is there any hard data on the number of ghost jobs out there? Even estimates?

Yes but I can't promise Hard Data about Estimates (for anything): https://kagi.com/search?q=data+on+ghost+jobs&r=us&sh=RKCfaG9...

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#50

Post by tamimio »

Now I want to see the males/females ratio in that graph, I bet most of the unemployed are males, which is something weird I noticed where everyone who’s complaining about the job market are men, meanwhile women are hired and sometimes working two jobs on top of that.
Post reply on HN