Staff Reports
The latest labor data is giving the left‑leaning punditry a bad case of whiplash. A new analysis from the Burning Glass Institute — picked up by major newspapers — shows unemployment for 22–34‑year‑olds without college degrees is near a two‑decade low when you compare those workers to their own history. At the same time, the Labor Department’s jobs report showed stronger‑than‑expected payroll gains and a steady 4.1% unemployment rate. Translation: the job market is treating non‑college young workers very well, while many recent college grads are finding it tougher out there.
What the Burning Glass analysis actually found
Burning Glass compared unemployment for different education groups against each group’s history since the early 2000s. Young workers who never finished college are sitting in one of their best stretches in about 20 years. Gad Levanon, the institute’s chief economist, notes the gap between degree and non‑degree workers is real and likely lasting. That is the headline here: this isn’t a one‑month fluke. It’s a shift in who employers need and who they can find.
Why the jobs report backs up the finding
The recent BLS jobs release added roughly 162,000 payrolls and left unemployment at 4.1% after upward revisions to prior months. Hiring has been strongest in construction, manufacturing, and leisure and hospitality — the very sectors that hire a lot of workers without bachelor’s degrees. Employers are hiring where the work is real and the skills are practical. Meanwhile, some entry‑level white‑collar jobs that once went to fresh grads are being pared back or automated.
Causes and consequences: a plain‑spoken take
There are simple reasons for this shift. Older skilled workers are retiring. Immigration numbers are down. Employers are short of plumbers, welders, electricians and other trade workers. At the same time, more Americans hold college degrees than ever, and AI and automation are taking on routine tasks that once launched many young graduates’ careers. The result? A “degree‑reset” where practical skills now pay in ways polite society did not predict. Policy should follow reality: expand apprenticeships, cut red tape for trades, and stop pretending every kid needs a four‑year degree as a moral good.
So what should conservatives push for? Double down on apprenticeships, fund vocational schools, and free employers to hire and train locally. Celebrate the skilled trades instead of sneering at them. The market is already valuing practical skills — it’s time policy and culture caught up. If the elites want to keep insisting a diploma is the only path to a good life, that’s their choice. But let’s not stand in the way of real jobs, real paychecks, and the young Americans who are actually building this economy.
