By Lalita Smith
The time has finally come; after four,
five, maybe even six years of perspiration,
dedication and preservation (of
sanity) it’s finally here — college graduation.
As hundreds, even thousands
of nervous
students anxiously await that glorious
moment when their name is called
and they walk across that sacred stage
— many of them are thinking to themselves,
“What’s next?”
Unfortunately, for many of these students,
the answer to that question isn't a simple one.
The dream is the same for many of
these students: go to college, graduate
from college and get a job.
Sounds simple, right? For many graduates,
it’s far from simple.
According to an annual report released
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),
in 2013 the unemployment rate for college
graduates over 25, who earned a
bachelor’s degree or higher, was 3.7 percent.
The Economic Policy Institute reports
that the current unemployment rate for
college graduates between the ages of
21 and 24 is over eight percent.
This means that at any given time —
there are roughly 2,000 unemployed
college graduates searching for jobs that
may not even exist.
Sounds bad — but the sad part is,
for many black graduates, it gets even
worse.
A report released by the Center Economic
and Policy research reports that
in 2013, the unemployment rate for recent
black graduates is over 12 percent
— compared to the only 5.6 rate for all
recent college graduates.
The same report released by the BLS
also stated that the unemployment rate
for blacks who earned a bachelor’s degree
or higher was 5.7 percent in 2013,
compared to the unemployment rate of
3.5 of their white counterparts.
Many people may argue that the difference
in rates isn't that much — it’s only
a little over two percent, right?
However in 2103, the total number of
employed graduates was over 47,000
— and over 38,000 of those were white
graduates — meaning that over 75 percent
of the entire college educated workforce
was white.
While blacks made up less than 10 percent.
Suddenly that two percent doesn't
seem so small.
Lauren Carter, 24, a recent black graduate
of Cleveland State University —
knows just how hard it was to find a job
upon graduating.
“It really sucks,” said Carter. “I put in
more applications than I can even remember,
and most of the time that’s
about as far as I got. I had been out of
school for two years before I just gave up
and decided to go back to college.”
Fortunately people aren't turning a
blind eye to the problems that face these
black graduates — articles, studies and
reports run rampant throughout the internet,
all shedding light unto a plight
that might otherwise go unheard.
Unfortunately, the bad news for black
graduates doesn't end there.
With unemployment comes under employment
— a twofold term that can
include college graduates who work in
fields that don’t require a college education
(for example a law school graduate
who works as a bus boy) and also those
who want to and could work full-time,
but were forced to accept part-time positions.
It’s true that black graduates aren't the
only ones who suffer from underemployment
— a recent article published on Slate.com points
out that the underemployment
rate for college graduates between
the ages of 22 and 27 was nearly
44 percent.
The underemployment rate for all college
graduates was around 35 percent.
However, when you consider that fact
that white graduates make up nearly 75
percent of the entire college educated
workforce, it’s would be a safe assertion
that they make up quite a large portion
of those underemployed as well, right?
A separate report released by the Center
for Economic and Policy Research
found that in 2013, 55 percent of all
employed black graduates were underemployed
— more than half of all black
graduates are underemployed.
“It’s really hard knowing you spent all
that time in college, yet companies will
offer you part time work or try to underpay
you, when you know you can do
better,” Carter said.
Seems as though there are a whole lot
of people not seeing a return on that
good ole’ “college investment.”
So, why is it so hard for black graduates
to find jobs?
A recent PBS News hour segment featured
Nela Richardson, a Senior Economist
for Bloomberg — who attempted to
answer this question.
“This is a problem that is fixable,” said
Richardson. “When it comes to black
youth, you still see double the unemployment
rate [compared to] other college
graduates, so that’s when we have
to match job training programs, perhaps
paid internships, with college graduates
to make sure they have the same employment
opportunities going forward.”
Nothing is ever easy, but if college
graduates are willing to do the work,
choose the right degree programs for the
right jobs, there just might be hope for
the next crop of black graduates.
