Change! 1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed

I'm no Charles Rove, but methinks the Obama Get Out The Vote effort will have a tad more difficulty this year than in 2008.

The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.

Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs -- waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example -- and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor's degrees...

...Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor's degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.

...About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years. In 2000, the share was at a low of 41 percent, before the dot-com bust erased job gains for college graduates in the telecommunications and IT fields.

Obama 2012
Hey, Kids! We're pretty sure more class warfare will work if you just give us another four years!


Cartoon: TobyToons.com.