The problem? Underemployment, and no one is quite sure what to do about it. In this episode I talk about the effects of underemployment, what it's like to be underemployed, and I ask some questions about what we're supposed to do about underemployment that admittedly don't have a simple answer to.

Topics covered:

• The definition of underemployment from episode one
• Why no one’s talking about it
• The focus on unemployment numbers and why it isn't good
• How many college graduates are underemployed (probably)
• Why it’s scary that so many college graduates are underemployed
• The effects of underemployment*
• What makes underemployment so emotionally taxing
• Shame and vulnerability researcher Brene Brown’s books and TED Talk
• Students go to college to get a job, chief academic officers believe they’re preparing them for the working world, but business leaders disagree
• What it’s like to be underemployed
• How skilled trade positions go unfilled because so many young Americans are going to college instead of learning a trade and that this is a result of the public perception of the unworthiness of learning a trade
• Why today’s college students need to temper their expectations
• Why the job market is an employer’s market

Research cited:

• “A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the underemployment rate for all college graduates betweens the ages of 22 and 65 has hovered around 33% for the past three decades.”
• “Compared to the unemployment rate, which fluctuated between four and ten percent during the same time period, these numbers are alarmingly high.”
• “In 2014, there were 45,176,000 men and women in the United States over age 18 with a bachelor’s degree.”
• “Student loan debt continues to increase per student each year.”
• “Those with the least net worth owe the most student debt.”