A 2024 study of the careers of millions of graduates found that 52% of graduates are underemployed a year after graduating: working in jobs that don't need a bachelor's degree. Of those, 73% are still underemployed ten years later (Burning Glass Institute and Strada, Talent Disrupted).
This isn't a story about students who chose the "wrong" major. The data cuts across fields. It includes business majors working retail, engineering graduates in administrative roles, and communications students in jobs with no career trajectory.
What the data actually shows
The first job matters most. Graduates who start in a job that uses their degree mostly stay on that track; graduates who start underemployed mostly stay underemployed.
The issue isn't education itself. It's the gap between earning a degree and converting it into a career. Universities are optimized for the first part. Almost nothing in the current system is optimized for the second.
The career services gap
The typical college career center has about 1,400 students for every professional on its staff (NACE, 2025). About a third of graduates say they never visited their career center, and of those who did, 16% called it very helpful (Gallup, 2016).
Career centers offer resume reviews, job fairs, and generic interview prep. What they can't offer is what actually determines early-career outcomes: industry-specific mentorship, insider access to hiring networks, and a multi-year strategy that starts before junior year recruiting season.
What this means for families paying for college
At this year's published prices, four years at the average private college cost about $260,000 with housing and food, and about $125,000 at an in-state public university (College Board). Either way, it's the largest investment most families make outside of a home.
Yet about half of graduates start in a job that doesn't need the degree.
Some of those odds are in a student's control: what they study, and whether they complete an internship (see below).
What a student can do
The underemployment data isn't a reason to skip college. A degree still matters: workers with a bachelor's degree are far less likely to be unemployed than workers with only a high school diploma (Bureau of Labor Statistics). But the degree alone isn't enough.
What separates the graduates who start in a job that uses their degree? The same study points to two things a student controls: the major they choose, and completing an internship, which makes a graduate about half as likely to start out underemployed.
A college career center serves many students at once. A family can build this on its own or find a program that does.