Are ‘Underemployed’ College Grads an Opportunity for Retail?

A new study from the Burning Glass Institute and the Strada Institute for the Future found that 52% of college graduates end up working in jobs that “do not require a degree or make meaningful use of college-level skills” within a year of graduation, including working retail selling floors.

Other “underemployed” jobs college graduates find themselves working in include food service, construction, hospitality, and office administration, according to the report.

The study, based on analysis of 2022 U.S. Census Bureau data along with job postings and online resumes of more than 60 million U.S. workers, underscored how critical getting the first job out of college is to long-term earnings and career success.

Of the graduates in non-college-level jobs a year after leaving college, 45% remained underemployed a decade later. Compared to someone with no education beyond high school, a recent graduate employed in a college-level job typically earns about 88% more, while an underemployed graduate earns only about 25% more.

What a student studies particularly determines their odds of getting on a college-level career track. Graduates with bachelor’s degrees in biology, psychology, communications, arts, or non-math-intensive business fields (e.g. management, marketing, or human resources) faced higher underemployment rates than those with health, engineering, or education degrees. Internships were also found to be critical in landing a college-ready job.

Retailers may gain a second chance to convince college graduates to pursue a retail career, with some working their selling floors as a stopgap measure in starting their careers.

A University of Florida study from 2016 found that while negative stereotypes associated with retailing, including long hours and low pay, have traditionally challenged college recruiting, “a pool of talented graduates now want to pursue careers in retailing, in part inspired by the rapidly changing landscape of retailing, with emphasis shifting toward employee responsibility in areas such as financial management, leadership, and technological skills.”

Walmart, Nordstrom, H-E-B, and L.L.Bean are among retailers with training programs aimed at college graduates for store and department managers.

“The store is your classroom,” L.L.Bean’s recruitment pitch states. “‘Learn by doing’ in this experiential training program.”

Still, settling for a first job in a low-paying field or one that’s out-of-line with their interests risks leading a worker to get stuck in an undesirable role or industry that’s hard to escape.

“I would stress to anyone out there, hold out as long as you can” for the right first job, Alexander Wolfe, a 2018 Northern Kentucky University graduate who earned a degree in integrative studies and currently works in security, told the Wall Street Journal. “You don’t want to pigeonhole yourself into something you don’t want to do.”