This article looks at the phenomenon of mal-employment among college graduates in the United States, beginning with an overview of labor-market trends and the effects of the Great Recession on the job-market experiences of young people, including recent college graduates. It then defines "mal-employment" and examines its incidence over…

In April 2013, "NEJHE" launched its "New Directions for Higher Education" series to examine emerging issues, trends and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs and practices. In this installment, DiSalvio interviews Matthew Sigelman, CEO of Burning Glass Technologies, a Boston-based labor market…

Northeastern University economists Paul E. Harrington and Andrew M. Sum argue that a recent report, "Help Wanted", "radically overstates the size of the college labor market." This overcount, they claim, has nothing to do with the recession. "Even in times of near full employment," Harrington and Sum argue that…

From the housing crisis to high debt, from stagnating incomes to high unemployment, the Great Recession has touched most aspects of many people's lives. College graduates, a highly educated group often insulated from the worst of economic challenges, have not been spared. Their unemployment rate reached 9.1 percent in 2010--the highest annual rate…

Many young people in Russia find it difficult to move into employment, and given the importance of a more efficient labor force for Russia's economic future, more needs to be done by the Russian government to improve the situation. Under current conditions, the state's activity in regard to solving issues of protecting the interests of young…

The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce has engaged in a highly publicized campaign claiming that the nation will face a very substantial deficit of college graduates by 2018 if the American postsecondary system fails to rapidly expand the number of college degrees it awards each year. Indeed, the employment projections developed by…

The College Board has just published a "Wake-up Call to the American People and American Educators." In a report entitled "Coming to Our Senses," it argues that this "nation's dominant position in the world order is at great risk.... Across the globe, leaders have put their faith in education. They understand that economic…

The recent response by Anthony Carnevale et al. to the authors' analysis of the fundamental shortcomings associated with their predictions of widespread college labor shortages focuses on three areas. First, Anthony Carnevale et al. suggest that the authors are educational Luddites by noting in the title of their response that the authors believe…

There is not enough evidence to conclude either that many college graduates are employed in jobs that do not require a degree or that there is a shortage of college graduates in the labor market. (JOW)

The number of jobs requiring four or more years of college education is projected to grow by 45 percent over the 1982-1995 period, compared to 25 percent for all jobs. (JOW)

Described is the job market for Ph.D.s in mathematics. Political and economic factors, an influx of mathematicians from the Soviet Union, and an increase of foreign students who want to stay in the United States after they graduate are cited as reasons for the reduced number of jobs. (KR)

There are numerous major differences between the learning environments of colleges and universities and of the world of work. Graduates' short- and long-term productivity could be enhanced if the transition from one situation to the other were smoother and, if they were better prepared to be competent, self-directed learners. (Author)

Includes three articles: "More College Graduates May Be Chasing Fewer Jobs" (Shelley); "College Graduates: Do We Have Too Many or Too Few?" (Hecker); and "College Earnings and Why They Vary" (Hecker). (SK)

This paper addresses conflicting views on whether there is now or will soon be a surplus of college graduates and other skilled workers by analyzing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Ten questions (and the answers reached) are addressed: (1) "Do the latest BLS projections of college graduate supply actually predict a bust--a…

Characteristics of foreign national enrollments in colleges and universities in the U.S. Mid-South are discussed, along with implications of the presence of foreign nationals for colleges and the U.S. labor market. Enrollments of foreign nationals by field of study in 1982 are examined, along with their representation at the graduate level in…