I missed this May 2014 article in Slate by Jordan Weissmann.
In the graph to the left “underemployed” is defined as “either jobless and hunting for work; working part-time because they can’t find a full-time job; or want a job, have looked within the past year, but have now given up on searching.”
Weissmann explains that over-qualification represents another kind of underemployment. “In a January report, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that roughly 44 percent of recent graduates—meaning those ages 22 to 27 with a B.A. or higher—were in a job that did not technically demand a bachelor’s degree.”
Is that bad? Actually, it’s on par with the early 1990s. The difference is that many of the jobs that don’t technically demand a bachelor’s degree no longer pay well. Their wages haven’t kept up with the cost of living. Today, less than 40 percent of these jobs pay more than $45,000 per year. Over 20 percent pay less than $25,000 per year.
Read the whole thing.