AP: Half of New College Grads Jobless or Underemployed

Monday, April 23rd, 2012

Half of recent college graduates are either unemployed or working at jobs that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge, an analysis of government data by The Associated Press has found. Young adults are, instead of putting their degrees to full use, increasingly parsing together lower-paying jobs in an attempt to keep up with student loan payments and cost of living.  From the AP:

While there’s strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder. Median wages for those with bachelor’s degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.

Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor’s degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.

Report: Student Loans for K-12 on the Rise

Friday, March 30th, 2012

A growing number of American families are seeking loans for education long before their kids even apply to college.  According to SmartMoney.com, families are applying for school loans when their children are as young as 5 years old:

Though data is scarce, private school experts and the small number of lenders who provide loans for kindergarten through 12th grade say pre-college loans are becoming more popular. Your Tuition Solution, one of the largest lenders in this space, says demand for the upcoming year is already up: This month, the total dollar amount of loans families requested rose 10% compared to a year ago; at that pace, the company expects its total funding to rise to $20 million for 2012-13. Separately, First Marblehead, which exited the market in 2008, reentered last year as demand for loans began to rise.

Much of this demand is coming from high-income families. Roughly 20% of families that applied for aid to pay for their children’s kindergarten through 12th grade private school education had incomes of $150,000 or more, according to 2010-11 data, the latest from the National Association of Independent Schools. That’s up from just 6% in 2002-03. Those who don’t get approved for free aid, like grants, increasingly turn to loans, experts say.

Image: Kindergarten class, via Shutterstock