For the stock market, things are going great. If you're a recent college graduate: Not so much.
The Dow Jones industrial average hit 52 all-time highs in 2013. This week, the Nasdaq closed at its highest point in more than 13 years, days after the S&P 500 hit a record close.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for millennials ages 18 to 29 in the United States has stubbornly remained in double digits. And the percentage of young workers as a whole without employment is still close to double what it was when the recession hit. A report from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in 2013 found half of recent college graduates are working jobs that don't require a degree.
Yale University President Peter Salovey said in an interview Wednesday on HuffPost Live that he certainly sees that anxiety in his institution's students.
While Yale graduates may not have trouble finding work after getting their degrees, Salovey said his administration is finding they have to provide a lot more support in helping students develop the ability to go get those jobs, through things like resume and interview preparation.
"That used to be more in the background, it's a little more in the foreground now because of the job market and because of the anxiety that it's created," Salovey said.
But what really worries him is that with the ever-increasing tuition at public universities, and the accompanying student debt, his Ivy League school is actually cheaper for many students. That makes it tougher for many young people to afford college, and without a degree, they're more likely to struggle finding any job.
"It troubles me deeply that for a middle class student, let alone a working class student, if they're admitted to a place like Yale University, their families will pay less for that college education than typically if they went to the state university in their own state as state tuition payers," Salovey said. "That is a challenging model."
Related
Before You Go
