The September 2025 unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statics (BLS) was published last week. Its release was delayed by the government shutdown.
If you didn’t see it, the headline numbers appeared somewhat favorable. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 119,000. However, the unemployment rate still rose to 4.4 percent.
But if you squinted at the fine print. You found a number that was counter to the promise of a college education, and the expectation that it’s a golden ticket to gainful employment and a middle-class life. Specifically, a record 25 percent of all unemployed Americans now hold a four-year college degree.
On the flipside, this means 75 percent of the unemployed are without a college degree. Still, if you’ve invested four years and tens of thousands of dollars acquiring a college level education, you’d want the statistic to show that 100 percent of the unemployed are without a college degree.
In short, one in four people currently looking for work have done what they thought was the right thing. They spent four years, and likely a mountain of debt, pursuing an education. They thought this would be their golden ticket. It’s what worked for prior generations. Yet this is no longer proving to be true. Continue reading







