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May 13, 2008Inhospitable Job Market to Greet College Graduates |
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From Economic Policy Institute: This month's crop of new college graduates will confront a more inhospitable job market than their predecessors faced in 2001, the beginning of the last recession. In particular, wage and benefit trends show that the labor market for recent college graduates (ages 23-29) was weaker in 2007 than before the last recession in 2001. While the hourly wages for both men and women have ended their steady decline, they have barely risen and are still lower by about $0.60 for women and $1.60 for men than they were six years ago. Over the last recession and recovery, college graduates in entry-level jobs became less likely to receive employer-provided health insurance and pension coverage.1 The incidence of health insurance coverage is over 5 percentage points lower than in 2001, and less than half of young college grads now receive any form of pension coverage on the job. The fact that new college grads are doing poorly is a troubling sign, since those with higher education and more skills required in the new economy (e.g., computer literacy) are expected to be faring well. Health coverage is defined as being included in an employer-provided plan where the employer paid for at least some of the premium.
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