For many year, if you wanted a good economic future, you’d head to college for that sheepskin golden ticket. The advice to do so has been effective in selling the higher education dream. IN January, the Lumina Foundation noted that the percentage of working adults who earned a post-secondary education degree (including associate) rose to 54.9%, as Forbes Senior Contributor Michael Nietzel reported.
Unfortunately, the magic wand is sputtering. Layoffs have been growing heavy, and the ranks of the unemployed are filling with a large number of well-educated workers. If you consider all holders of post-secondary degrees, they comprise 41.3% of the unemployed.
Layoffs Are Up
In October 2025, U.S.-based corporations announced 153,074 job cuts, according to outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That was up 183% from the 54,064 job cuts in September. The October figure was up 175% from 55,597 the year before.
“Through October, employers have announced 1,099,500 job cuts, an increase of 65% from the 664,839 announced in the first ten months of last year,” they wrote. “It is up 44% from the 761,358 cuts announced in all of 2024. Year-to-date job cuts are at the highest level since 2020, when 2,304,755 cuts were announced through October.”
The firm tracked almost 450 individual job-cut plans last month. There were just under 400 in September.
Through October, there were 1,099,500 job cuts. That was up 65% from 664,839 announced in the first ten months of last year. That was up 44% from 761,358 cuts in all of 2024.
According to Challenger, technology led the private-sector job cuts “as companies restructure amid AI integration, slower demand, and efficiency pressures.” Of the total job cuts in October, 33,281 were in this industry, which was the sector with the second-highest job eliminations.
College Unemployment Is High
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the September 2025 employment report. There were 7.603 million unemployed, 1.923 million of whom possessed at least a bachelor’s degree, with another 1.254 million having attended some college or attained an associate’s degree.
That means 25.3% of the unemployed had a bachelor’s degree or higher and 16.5% had attended college or received an associate’s degree. Put them together and that is 41.8% of all the unemployed.
That may seem more than reasonable. If 54.9% of working adults have at least a bachelor’s or associate degree, it seems that if unemployment is evenly distributed, a hefty portion should fall among those with more education. The numbers suggest that people with post-secondary degrees got off more lightly.
But that returns to the promises made about college attendance: better incomes, secure jobs, and a more privileged life. That may have been true at one point. Today, perhaps not. The unemployment rate of new college graduates is more than double the overall national rate. The percentage of unemployed people out of work for at least half a year has been growing. And when you look for a new job, there is the possibility that advertised positions by legitimate companies are fake.
The economy is changing in some profound ways, but officials and experts don’t seem to pay much attention.