But actually, graduates are still the least likely to be unemployed right now.
Those without a high school diploma face the highest risk of being out of work, with jobless rates more than twice those of college grads, while everyone else falls somewhere in between.
In 2006, when the data starts, unemployment for people without a high school diploma sat at 6.9%, compared with 2.2% for college grads, and in early 2026, it’s still 6.4% versus roughly 2.8%.
In other words, even as the economy and workplace have transformed, one thing has stayed stubbornly consistent: having a degree still puts you at the safest end of the unemployment chart.
For all the backlash, a degree is still the safest way to get your foot in the door in your 20s. It won’t guarantee a six-figure salary or a fast track to the C‑suite, but the data shows it still makes it easier to land on your feet—and stay there.
“We need to stop expecting the same damn people who bought a four-bedroom home and a brand-new Cadillac convertible off of a $30,000-a-year salary to understand what it’s like to be working 40-plus hours a week with a master’s degree and still not being able to afford a 400-square-foot studio apartment in bumf-ck Iowa,” Robbie Scott slammed.
“We’re staying in school. We’re going to college. We’ve been working since we were 15, 16 years old…doing everything that y’all told us to do so that we can what? Still be living in our parents’ homes in our late twenties?”
Although the promise of degrees being a golden ticket to a corner office and a house in the suburbs has undeniably faded, the numbers still make a stubborn case for them.
In other words, the job ad might no longer ask for a degree. The hiring manager probably still wants one. And the data shows that it hasn’t changed in at least 20 years of records.
