Many Recent College Grads Face Tough Job Prospects In Wisconsin

Nationally, there are predictions of more and higher-paying jobs for recent graduates, but in Wisconsin job growth has lagged. For this and other reasons, young professionals in the state may likely find it difficult to land the job they want.

Job prospects for recent engineering graduates at University of Wisconsin-Madison are excellent according to John Archambault, assistant dean for student development in the university’s College of Engineering. He pointed to a survey showing 93 percent of last year’s grads were employed or in graduate school within six months. But it varies. Fifty-seven percent of UW-Madison graduates in economics and political science report getting jobs last year. Only 40 percent of humanities graduates did.

“It certainly still is a time when the economy is needing to grow more and there certainly are grads who are not successful right after graduation in finding employment,” said Archambault.

In Wisconsin, the unemployment rate last year for those between the ages of 20 and 24 was 10.8 percent. That includes those without a college degree.

For the country as a whole, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says 273,000 people with a bachelor’s degree or higher made at or below $7.25 an hour.