That Post-College Bartender Job Could Stunt Your Career for a Decade

Seniors in college have been told they're entering the best job market in a decade. But these educated workers may have more to worry about than they thought, a new report suggests.

An analysis of College Board and government data published Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute finds the Class of 2015 will likely see lower wages than cohorts who graduated into better job markets for as long as 15 years. Other research has found that a rising number of recent graduates take low-skill and service jobs that don't make use of their degrees. Since 2000, the share of recent college graduates taking such low-wage jobs as bartending, cashier work, and food service has steadily increased. Last year, 46 percent of young college graduates worked jobs that didn't require a bachelor's degree, up from 38 percent in 2007, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As the Atlantic's Derek Thompson recently wrote, "the era of the overeducated barista is here to stay."