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Unemployment rate - college graduates - master's degree, 25 years and over (cgmd25o).

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Units:   Percent , Not Seasonally Adjusted

Frequency:   Monthly

The unemployment rate represents the number unemployed as a percent of the labor force. The series comes from the 'Current Population Survey (Household Survey)'.

Suggested Citation:

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Unemployment Rate - College Graduates - Master's Degree, 25 years and over [CGMD25O], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CGMD25O, June 17, 2024.

RELEASE TABLES

• Unemployment rate by educational attainment and age, monthly, not seasonally adjusted: 25 years and over

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2024:Q1 Quarterly Highlights

Labor market conditions for recent college graduates continued to cool in the first quarter of 2024 but generally remained solid. Though the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.7 percent, the underemployment rate rose to 40.8 percent—in line with pre-pandemic levels but the highest reading in nearly two years.

This web feature tracks employment data for recent college graduates since 1990, allowing for a historical perspective on the experience of those moving into the labor market.

• compare the unemployment rate for recent college graduates with that of other groups
• monitor the underemployment rate of recent college graduates

A table tracks outcomes by college major with the latest available annual data.

How to cite this report:

Federal Reserve Bank of New York, The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates, https://nyfed.org/collegelabor.

Related reading:

The data do not represent official estimates of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, its President, the Federal Reserve System, or the Federal Open Market Committee.

We describe the framework for this analysis in “Underemployment in the Early Careers of College Graduates following the Great Recession” (NBER Studies in Income and Wealth ) and “Are Recent College Graduates Finding Good Jobs?,” a 2014 article in the New York Fed’s Current Issues in Economics and Finance series. These papers examine more than two decades of data on the employment outcomes of recent college graduates, and contain more details and historical perspective.

We launched this web feature to make some of the data featured in these papers available on a timely and updated basis. New unemployment and underemployment data for recent college graduates post on a quarterly basis (typically in February, May, August, and November), and wages and outcome data for college graduates are released on an annual basis (typically in February). Data extend from 1990 to the present. Periodic analysis of these data are published on the Liberty Street Economics blog.

Our definition of underemployment is based on the kinds of jobs held by college graduates. A college graduate working in a job that typically does not require a college degree is considered underemployed. We use survey data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network (O*NET) Education and Training Questionnaire to help determine whether a bachelor’s degree is required to perform a job. The articles cited above describe our approach in detail.

Some additional research that utilizes these data include “Working as a Barista After College Is Not as Common as You Might Think” ( Liberty Street Economics ).

Our underemployment figures are calculated as a percentage holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, so they do include those with graduate and professional degrees. See the notes below the x-axis on the Underemployment chart for more detail.

The “Share with Graduate Degree” column in the table represents, for each college major, the percentage of workers with a bachelor’s degree that also possesses a graduate degree of any kind. For example, 50.2 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree in history also possess some kind of graduate degree, based on February 2022 data.

Unfortunately, we do not.

No, we only publish data that encompass the most recent year period available to utilize from the American Community Survey, which serves as the source for our analysis.

We do not have updated data by gender available in this web feature, but we did provide some gender analysis in “Underemployment in the Early Careers of College Graduates following the Great Recession.”

Unfortunately, at this time, our analysis only pertains to those with at least a bachelor’s degree.

No. Through 2023:Q2, we examined the types of jobs held by those who are underemployed, categorizing jobs broadly by skill level and pay to generate time series data for the percentages of graduates holding “good non-college jobs” and “low-wage jobs.” Starting with the 2023:Q3 update, the web feature will no longer include the data series for "underemployed job types," although historical data remain available for download .

In our definition, early career graduates are those aged 22 to 27, and mid-career graduates are those aged 35 to 45.

Boyarchenko, N., R. K. Crump, A. Kovner, and O. Shachar. 2021. “ Measuring Corporate Bond Market Dislocations .” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports , no. 957, January, revised July.

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Generation Unemployed: Another Class Of Graduates Faces Pandemic-Scarred Future

Sam Gringlas

College senior Bao Ha has applied to more than 100 jobs. So far, he's had no luck. Courtesy of Bao Ha hide caption

College senior Bao Ha has applied to more than 100 jobs. So far, he's had no luck.

The job market is starting to roar back, but for anxious college seniors like Bao Ha, it's a different reality altogether.

"I've probably applied to like 130 or 40 jobs or something," Ha says. "I have not gotten even an email back, or an interview."

Ha is graduating soon from Macalaster College in Minnesota, and between his anthropology thesis and trying to check items off his senior year bucket list, he has spent hours crafting cover letters and scouring job postings.

And now, self-doubt has started to trickle in.

"Maybe my cover letter sucks; maybe my resume sucks," he says.

By many indications, the job market is coming back: The employment report was a blockbuster, showing more than 900,000 jobs created with a big recovery in previously struggling sectors like restaurants.

The problem for students like Ha is that youth unemployment remains stubbornly high. Though much better than the 27.4% rate in April last year, the unemployment rate for those ages 16-24 actually ticked higher, to 11.1% in March. That was significantly above the overall unemployment rate of 6%.

Roaring Back: Employers Add 916,000 Jobs As Economy Emerges From Winter Slump

That's no surprise to Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. When the economy tumbles, the job market tends to be worse for young people, she says.

The reality is that there may be plenty of cheaper-to-hire college graduates, but in an economy still recovering from major layoffs, there are also plenty more experienced workers desperate for jobs.

"They'll choose, all else equal, people with more experience," Gould says about employers. "So young workers are left out in the cold and many are going to have a hard time starting their career."

Erica Schoenberg would know.

She was a member of the class of 2020, which had the misfortune of graduating in the brunt of the pandemic.

A year after Schoenberg watched her virtual graduation ceremony from Trinity University from her living room couch, she's back at her parents' home because she can't find a full-time job.

Needing the income and something to occupy the day, she took a part-time job at a fabric store, and she also teaches Hebrew school over Zoom.

It's far from the career in publishing she imagined, and Schoenberg frets about the gap on her resume that lengthens by the day.

"My mom said she thinks I can put recent graduate up until the next people do," Schoenberg says.

Erica Schoenberg graduated from college in April 2020. After months searching, she took a part-time job at a fabric store and teaches Hebrew school on the side. Courtesy of Erica Schoenberg hide caption

Erica Schoenberg graduated from college in April 2020. After months searching, she took a part-time job at a fabric store and teaches Hebrew school on the side.

The difficulties in finding that first job are magnified for young people of color, especially those without college degrees. Many worked in sectors such as hospitality and retail, where millions lost their jobs.

Millions Are Out Of A Job. Yet Some Employers Wonder: Why Can't I Find Workers?

Guadalupe Avalos is a senior at Cass Tech High School in Detroit. Last April, she was just a few months into a part-time job as a barista before the coffee shop shut down and let her go. She didn't even get to master the espresso machine.

"I was just learning to use that one," she says.

Avalos asked about jobs around her neighborhood, like a nearby pizza place and a grocery store, but she kept being turned away.

"Yeah, there was a job at a McDonald's, but it was 20 minutes away and I don't have that kind of transportation available to me," she says.

Finding a job is important to Avalos: It might determine whether she's able to pay for room and board at college next fall.

"I really, really want to move out and go to a college dorm room, but if I don't have that money, then I might just have to stay home," she says.

High school senior Guadalupe Avalos lost her part-time job during the pandemic. Finding a new job would help her pay for college room and board next fall. Courtesy of Guadalupe Avalos hide caption

High school senior Guadalupe Avalos lost her part-time job during the pandemic. Finding a new job would help her pay for college room and board next fall.

She Works 2 Jobs. Her Grocery Budget Is $25. This Is Life Near Minimum Wage

And that points to a reality for many young people. Failing to land that dream first job, whether in high school or college, can end up derailing a lifetime's worth of career experience.

Economist Gould says the 2008 global financial crisis might be an inexact comparison to the pandemic-scarred economy. But one thing it showed was how difficult it is to recover from the setback of starting your career on the wrong foot.

"It took many years for some of those young high school and college graduates to get their foothold in the labor market, to get on a path they'd been trained for, to pay off student loans, to start a family, to invest and buy a house," she says.

Ha in Minneapolis has even more riding on finding that first job. He is the first generation in his family to graduate from college, and soon, his parents will attend his socially distanced graduation to watch him get his degree.

And although Ha is unsure of what his future holds, he is still hopeful that all the student loan debt, the hours of studying and the hundreds of cover letters sent will prove worth it at the end.

"I haven't given up," he says. "I'm just going to keep applying until something hits."

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Unemployment rate of recent graduates in the United States from December 2016 to December 2024

Additional Information

Show sources information Show publisher information Use Ask Statista Research Service

February 2024

United States

December 2016 to December 2023

Recent college graduates are defined as those aged 22 to 27 with a bachelor's degree or higher.

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What we’ve been reading: How to improve graduate employability

Mohammed a. khan.

This blog is based on the December 2020 edition of the Knowledge4Jobs newsletter, curated by the World Bank’s Jobs Group and Labor and Skills Global Solutions Group. Click  here  to sign up for the Knowledge4Jobs newsletter.

This month we look at “employability” through the lens of governments, higher education institutions, employers, and students. We focus on institutions’ response to the pandemic fallout and the strategy of the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) for improving employability in a rapidly changing world.

COVID-19 has severely affected millions of young people around the world, particularly students who were looking forward to graduating in the summer of 2020 and beginning their professional lives. Many who planned to enter the job market have had their hopes of employability dashed. The “Corona Class of 20” is facing an unexpected global recession that will impact them for years to come, as they struggle to find jobs and pay off student debt. We have been down this road before, although this time we are experiencing a larger impact. Previous crisis cohorts of graduates during the 80’s, 90’s, and more recently during the 2008 recession, were similarly hit and continue to lag behind in lifetime earnings and job prospects. Thus, gaining a better understanding of the employability landscape can inform future directions in policy and practice.

IFC’s education strategy is predicated on “investing in quality education and training to strengthen human capital and enable people to prosper and be productive in rapidly changing economies.” As we look to the future, stakeholders are considering a broad range of issues including the skills gap, aligning curricula to labor market needs, employer/higher education institution linkages, digital internships, and skills mismatch. IFC has developed Vitae to help higher education institutions assess the quality of their current employability services. Such advisory solutions can assist in improving employability of young people in developing countries.

Graduate Employability During COVID-19

A “Business Commitment Framework” that can help institutions make investment choices in upskilling and reskilling their workforces . (World Economic Forum, November 2020)

Kay et al. outline how the University of Waterloo, Canada and RMIT University, Australia are responding to pandemic-caused challenges and opportunities to work-integrated learning programs . (Kay et al, November 2020)

A comprehensive report providing quantitative data and analysis to assess how college career services operations were before the pandemic . (National Association of Colleges and Employers, August 2020)

Abehala et al. analyzes the role of higher education institutions in promoting the development of competences for employability . (Abehala et al, July 2020)

Zao-Sanders and Palmer show that while college degree programs are no longer keeping pace with how fast things are changing in the workforce, new graduates are still well-qualified to bridge their own skill gaps . (Zao-Sanders & Palmer, September 2019)

The VET Toolbox provides partner countries with guidelines to improve the effectiveness and inclusiveness of VET reforms. (Enabel & British Council, 2020)

Essential Readings

The report explores the development of employability skills by using insights from 414 career advisory staff from institutions in 25 countries . (Department for Business Innovation and Skills, June 2011)

The report identifies how countries can successfully transition young people from education to employment , as well as identify possible challenges that may arise during such transitions. (McKinsey, January 2013)

Recommendations to better support international students in their employment and further study. (Universities UK International, January 2020)

The future of jobs report identifies the skills need and occupational requirements from the perspective of some of the world’s largest employers. (World Economic Forum, January 2016)

Here’s the 2020 edition of The Future of Jobs Report .

The book provides a detailed description of research and application outcomes from the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills project, which explored a framework for understanding the nature of skills.. (Care et al., 2018)

Broader Jobs Agenda

The challenges to youth employment in Asia and the Pacific now worsened by the COVID-19 crisis (International Labour Organization, 2020)

The GMAC annual report concludes that although graduate management talent is not immune to the impact of the pandemic, employers remain confident about their skills . Eighty-nine percent of employers said they plan to hire MBA graduates in 2021. (GMAC, September 2020)

Promoting social mobility and fair access to opportunities will be more important than ever after the pandemic. (Holt-White and Montacute, July 2020)

Kamaruddin et al examines the readiness of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia final year students to internships and graduate programs during the lockdown period. , they also assess their future employment prospects. (Kamaruddin et al., October 2020)

COVID-19 Related Articles

Response to COVID-19: Preparing for School Re-Opening – The Case of China (English): this note documented a digital resource platform made available nationwide, guidelines for distance learning in select provinces, and the results of a national teacher survey from the distance learning experience during school closures.

The graduate unemployment rate mirrors problems in the wider economy and as a result many students may prolong their time in education through postgraduate study . (Institute of Student Employers, July 2020)

The blog discusses how recent graduates are coping as a result of the pandemic . (Jessica Jones, September 2020)

Panel discussion: What does “Employability” mean amid global pandemic and recession? (Henseke et al., July 2020)

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The unemployed young academic: facing life on the outside

Passing my viva without corrections was just the latest addition to a spotless educational record. Despite any initial fears, my work was warmly-received and plans were quickly put in motion to transform the thesis into a book. This was the final validation from colleagues and mentors who had long assured me that I would have a bright future as a sociologist.

So how did I end up unemployed?

Understand that I would usually consider it distasteful to list my achievements like this, but am finding that modesty is becoming an obsolete quality in today's labour market. I tell you my achievements only to put my recent experiences in context. Life since the PhD has been hard.

Unlike many of my peers, I did not prioritise my employability when I was still a student. Though I did teach and present at a few conferences, I chose to focus most of my energy on crafting my thesis and getting it finished within the funding period. I am passionate about my work and stick by this decision, but what I am now learning is that while I left my viva exam ready to make a mark on the world, ready to prove that I merited the praise given me, I was still just one candidate in a congested academic job market.

After graduating, I spent two months finishing my leftover teaching and marking before becoming unemployed. I have applied for around twenty jobs and received one interview, which was unsuccessful. I am out in the cold but I try to remain positive. There are undoubtedly merits to my situation as an unemployed academic; it is wonderful to have so much time in which to think and write. I do, however, feel distant from the warmth of the institution that, over the past years, has validated who I am and what I think.

One of the unfortunate things about creative achievements within academia is that they cannot always be expressed in a way that is meaningful to the 'outside world'. Floating free of the university, I encounter few people in my daily life who care about my talents as a writer and researcher. I have been claiming Jobseekers' allowance for the previous three months and my advisors at the Job Centre are certainly not impressed.

One of the problems I am encountering is that most of the activities that young academics need to perform in order to improve their chances of employment – presenting at conferences, networking, writing articles to satisfy the upcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF), or crafting watertight personal statements – are not seen by Job Centre advisors as legitimate uses of time as an 'unemployee'. In a recent review with an advisor, not even my hours spent preparing for a job interview were considered a legitimate use of time. Time spent researching the role was considered time wasted, in which I should have been contacting further prospective employers.

After only three months claiming Jobseekers' Allowance, my advisors are already suggesting that my aspirations to work in academia are unrealistic. They do not understand the nature of my qualifications and call me complacent for failing to respond to listed vacancies for cleaners and checkout operators at Asda and Tesco. It is the unperturbed nature of these tellings-off that I find most distressing; the eerily casual manner in which it is suggested that I turn my back on my vocation, my identity, and eight years worth of learning and training.

I am familiar with the theories that explain the social mechanics and emotional consequences of what I am going through – I used to teach them. This irony has been a source of wry amusement. I make a lot of jokes these days, sometimes telling friends that I am going to draw on my experiences to write a satirical sequel to Harry Potter, whereby, realising his degree from Hogwarts has no value in the labour market, Harry is forced to get a job in a Virgin Media call centre. On gloomier days I flesh out the story: the narrative will move between Harry looking depressed in his headset taking call after call, and flashbacks to the good old days with Ron and the gang, back when a young wizard's skills were worth something. But I do wonder how long my friends will find this joke funny.

Humour is a horribly transparent coping strategy. A more enduring strategy is to take a sort of sociological interest in one's experiences. Following the philosopher Bertrand Russell, I believe that any experience that does not cause significant harm can be interesting, regardless of whether its character is positive or negative. Whilst visiting the job centre has been a particularly disheartening experience, I have certainly valued it as a source of social insight.

Still, as time goes on and I remain out of work, I can feel my sociological curiosity starting to wear off. Perhaps I am worrying too early, but I do feel like I am walking into a trap. In my struggle to find even a part-time academic job, I am forced to wonder how long the welfare system will tolerate me.

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional . To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, become a member of the Higher Education Network .

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Graduate Employment Outcomes Archive

Graduate employment outcomes.

In 2020 86% of graduates were employed or continuing their education within 12 months of graduation. In 2021 85% of graduates were employed or continuing their education within 10 months of graduation. This data only includes responses received on the post-graduate outcomes survey.

The information presented in the report below is a summary of the post-graduation outcomes for survey respondents six months after graduation. The report below includes the Class of:

• 2017 (November 2016, March 2017 and May 2017)
• 2018 (November 2017, March 2018, and May 2018)
• 2019 (November 2018, March 2019, and May 2019)

When reviewing this information, keep in mind:

• Several of our programs, most notably our MPH program, have changed over the past few years and the current composition of students is slightly different than the students surveyed in the previous Classes.
• The MPH-65 program began in September 2016 (replacing a two year master degree) and these graduates are not included in the Class of 2017 data. The first cohort of graduates is the Class of 2018.
• Prior education, training and interests play a significant role in the types of positions our recent graduates seek and obtain. Many of our students come to Harvard Chan with prior professional degrees, including medical degrees, and many have prior professional experience, some more extensive than others. Some students want to use their Harvard Chan education to expand their current roles and others want to completely change the direction of their career.
• Some of the survey respondents did not include all of the information requested in the survey, for example, they may have indicated they are employed but did not include information about their employer and therefore some of the employer information is incomplete.

Post-Graduation Plans Based on Degree Program and Field of Study/Department

Note: 1. This dashboard does not include PHD students.  The data for PHD Students runs through GSAS and is displayed on the dashboard at the end.

Graduate Outcome Data for Class of 2017 and 2018

Education Prior to Attending Harvard Chan

Post-Graduation Employment by Employment Sector, and Company

Note: 1. This dashboard does not include PHD students.  The data for PHD Students runs through GSAS and is displayed on the dashboard at the end. 2. Most Clinical Effectiveness students work in the “Hospital/Other Health-care Delivery Employment Category, which may skew the data. To remove this subset, unselect “Clinical Effectiveness” from the legend on the right under “Field of Study.”

Class of 2016 Graduate Employment Outcome Data

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Unemployed after 1st postdoc, what should my affiliation be when introduced during campus visit & job talk?

I finished my postdoc last year end of Aug. and have been unemployed ever since (not completely, I've been doing freelance work to support myself, but not research-related). The rest of time I've spent (1) applying to academic positions (mostly R1, some R2), (2) finishing writing manuscripts leftover from my postdoc (although I haven't submitted yet, except 1 which I'm only co-authored that's already published) (3) reviewing journal papers (apparently I'm still being asked), and (4) studying to get a professional certification (which IS related to my research, although getting the certification itself is not ever required for people doing research in my field, but the process of getting the certification contributes to my research).

So I have been getting several interviews from R1 institutions and been invited for campus visit and job talk. When I applied, it's clear on my CV that I stopped having academic affiliations since the end of my postdoc (I didn't try to hide it or fudge it). And at no point did anyone asked me what I'm doing since my postdoc ended during the initial interviews.

But now that I have to go on campus visits and give job talks, and they are asking me to give them brief bio so they can introduce me before the presentation and advertise my talk in the department. What should I tell them? Or rather, how should I phrase my current situation , so it won't sound pathetic and put me in a dejected mindset (which for sure will wreck my presentation and self-confidence). What affiliation should go on their posters and on my slides?

I'd like to think I'm not being asked/interviewed for "fake searches". In fact, in most cases, I actually applied after the stated "deadlines" (they are those "open until filled" positions). so I'd like to think no fake searches would last months (and almost the entire academic year). So I don't think they would invite me just to ridicule me or make me the obvious inferior candidate (although I guess this is possible). In any case, I'd just like some advice on how I should handle this. BTW, the end of this year would be 4th year since I got my PhD. And I didn't take anytime off (or ever been unemployed or have a gap on my CV).

• faculty-application
• presentation
• affiliation

• 2 "I've been doing freelance work to support myself". Then just say you are a freelancer. –  gefei Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 8:19
• 1 @gefei I'm hesitant to say that because (1) my freelancing gigs have nothing to do with my academic position/research (2) I think I'm okay saying that, my problem more has to do with what to label my slides + what they will put under my name (where affiliation is usually listed) on the poster they send around/post in the department/school. –  PandaPants Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 17:03
• Do you have any basis for suspecting that there even exists such a thing as a “fake search” (specifically in the US)? Do you really think a reputable academic department in the US will go around flushing a couple of thousand dollars down the toilet and wasting hours or days of their faculty’s time (an even scarcer resource) to invite for an interview a candidate whom they had no real interest in? –  Dan Romik Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 18:47
• 2 @PandaPants I assume this is something that differs from country to country, but what are R1 and R2 positions? Is this something US specific, and does it relate to the "level" of the post (ie. postdoc, junior researcher, lower permanent stuff, full permanent stuff or similar), or does it refer to quality of the post (ie. R1 postdoc is better quality / has better X (where X is a measure of something) then R2 postdoc)? it's not something I've heard of during my PhD+postdoc in France, nor my postdoc in the UK. –  penelope Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 14:31
• 1 @penelope sorry, R1 + R2 refer to the level of research activity the university has, R1=highest R2=moderate, and so on (not sure if there's an R3) these universities typically have PhD degree programs (whereas liberal arts colleges may not, or have a smaller graduate population, since the focus is more on teaching undergrads, I'm not 100% sure on this though). I wouldn't say R1/2 refers to the quality of the post, it mostly refers to the university as a whole I believe (like how much grant $$, publications, patents, etc), there's always pros & cons to each, also it depends on the discipline. –  PandaPants Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 7:33

4 Answers 4

This answer will be quite similar to @Designerpot s answer, but I hope I managed to avoid the risk of duplicating answers as I want to focus on a slightly different aspect.

You seem to ask What should my affiliation be? , however, based on the information you shared, this seems to be a slightly wrong question. What the university actually requested was A brief bio so they can introduce you before the presentation and advertise the talk in the department.

I think this kind of short bio is very typical, and is equivalent to what can be seen at the end of most journal publications ; a short bio of each of the authors. Unlike in @Designerpot s answer, I would say that you typically do not name any other people in those biographies, just institutions and dates of obtaining (most recent) qualifications. It is usually written in third person and has a fairly standard layout:

Panda Pants received his BSc and MSc from the University of Bamboo, Pandaland in 2013, and his PhD in 2017 from the University of Pants, Trouserland, while working in the ClothedAnimals Team on the topic of pandas wearing pants. He currently holds a position of Panda Researcher at New Panda Institute. He served as a reviewer for Panda Journal / received a student paper award in Panda Conference / received a prestigious scholarship from Future Panda Foundation. His research interests lie in the filed of panda behavior, more specifically behavioral changes observed in pandas wearing pants and more recently, pandas wearing dresses as well.

The sentences written in italics are optional; if you can not include any such information, simply don't. You can find endless examples of short biographies in this form - many from young researchers struggling to get to a decently sized paragraph - in fact, I keep one at hand as simply amend it for each of my submissions.

This is, as you said, to introduce and advertise you - so people from the department can better figure out if your research interests match and if the talk is potentially interesting. Since you are giving a presentation, you could also add a sentence more specific to what you are going to talk about.

The information about your current status is known to the interviewing team; the presentation is there to assess your academic fit into the department. So I believe any specifics about your work, including projects you worked on, people you collaborated with (supervisors and otherwise), reviewing work you did (I would only mention reviewing work in the short bio if it was for an outstanding journal) any anything demonstrating your suitability for the position you are applying to should go into your supporting presentation.

• Thank you for a very detailed analysis of my dilemma and suggestions! and I must note I really quite like your panda-themed sample paragraph :-) I wish I could just use that! –  PandaPants Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 7:43
• 1 @PandaPants I can have a little fun answering ;) And besides, I think it helps the flow of the article, while using "topic X, team Y, university Z" actually makes it harder to follow. Also, I'm just trying to think hard if I still had an affiliation or not by the time I applied for my current position (I didn't while waiting for the immigration documentation to go through and actually had to get a "freelancing job" as well for a few months), and I'm not so sure about it. But in any case, you are trying to present yourself as a researcher , not you as part of your (past) research group. –  penelope Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 10:10

How about "I've done my PhD at [PhD university] with [PhD supervisor], working on [PhD subject]. For my postdoc, I went to [postdoc university] to work with [postdoc supervisor] on [postdoc subject]." If you want, you could also say "I did my postdoc at ...," from which a good reader can infer that your postdoc has ended.

I don't think you need to stress your temporary freelance status any more than that. It's clear enough in your CV and you got an invitation for a campus visit + job talk, so apparently the interviewers do not think it's a big deal. Of course, you should have a good explanation for that gap during on-site interviews.

Finally, try not to worry too much whether you're being invited for fake interviews/to be ridiculed/as a filler candidate. I think mostly you are a bit uncomfortable about your current situation and that's putting some doubt in your mind that (I'm guessing) does not have a basis in reality. Simply concentrate on giving a good talk and having fun chats about the research you'd love to do.

• 1 Thank you! I agree w/ what you recommend. You read it correctly, I'm borderline ashamed of my unaffiliated status, which is partially due to my postdoc being a terrible fit + ended badly (not in terms of research, I had an independent project, but in terms of my relationships with my "mentors" who really did 0 mentoring.) So on my slides, I basically just won't put any affiliation? on the poster the department sends around, there also won't be any affiliation underneath my name? (where - from what I've seen at my own universities - there's usually an affiliation). Thanks! –  PandaPants Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 16:56
• Oops, the above comment is for @Designerpot –  PandaPants Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 17:05
• 1 @PandaPants The answerer is automatically notified of comments to their own answer, so the system (usually?) automatically removes leading tags thereof as they are superfluous. As for your slides, you should probably mention the institution(s) that supported the research, if any, much as you would for a publication. I think I've seen some speakers leave this to a verbal statement at the start of the talk, but even on the title slide you should have room for a blurb like "Research partially conducted while at the University of Whosville". –  zibadawa timmy Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 20:29
• 3 Just for completeness' sake: as others already said, you don't need to put any affiliation underneath your name or in your slides. Slides and talk announcements tend to have such wildly varying formatting that I'm pretty sure no one will actually notice. –  Designerpot Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 8:10
• 1 I think it's perfectly reasonable to note what institution work was done at regardless of your present affiliation, and it will be fairly clear that is what you are doing if you note multiple universities in your slides, like in this answer: "This work was done at ____" - that's less about claiming affiliation and more about giving institutional credit for the work. I think you are only nervous because of your anxiety about your current (though normal) situation. –  Bryan Krause ♦ Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 16:54

I suggest putting the focus where it belongs, on your work and its merits, which after all were good enough to get you the interview. The affiliation is a purely cosmetic issue and has little significance. Give the best talk you can, and don’t call even more attention to your status than necessary by trying to come up with some creative label (“freelancer”, “independent researcher” or whatnot) to fit some imaginary “affiliation” box that you imagine needs to be filled in the slides or your bio. If asked, tell the truth about your current employment status, but don’t mention it otherwise. Most importantly, as I said, the talk and its contents are what matters, so focus on those things and don’t let yourself be distracted by unimportant trivialities.

• Thank you very much! sounds good. thanks for taking the time to respond to my post! –  PandaPants Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 0:19

I've seen plenty of faculty candidates from industry give academic job talks without an affiliation, so it's not so uncommon, in my opinion to not have an affiliation on the flyers or on the slides.

In part, this choice by these candidates is due to the fact that they are not giving the talk as part of their current industry job, and they most likely do not want their current employer to know that they applied to a different job (they may even request the talk not to be advertised broadly or at all).

As for the second part of your questions, many of the same industry candidates apply for academic jobs well after 4 years from their PhDs. You're most likely not being invited for "fake" interviews. Good luck!

Obviously their reasons are quite different than yours, but like them, you shouldn't worry too much about not having an affiliation.

• thank you! wow, I didn't know that re: people coming back to academia (know people go the other way) and having to apply in stealth! –  PandaPants Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 7:40

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Still unemployed a year after graduating :(

It's almost a year since I passed my viva and I still don't have a job. I'm currently working a part-time call centre job to pay my rent which is utterly soul destroying. The problem is that I appear to have fallen into this black hole which has opened up between PhD and employment. I've tried applying for positions advertised as suitable for "early career researchers", but feedback has indicated that universities want applicants to be "research active", which basically means they want you to have half a dozen publications and well defined research interests. As a recent PhD graduate I only have a couple of papers I wrote with my supervisor a couple of years ago, plus my thesis. So I can't get a job unless I'm "research active"... but I can't become "research active" because nobody will give me a job! How am I supposed to define my research interests and produce half a dozen publications when I don't have a university job or access to time and facilities and funds which will allow me to do research? A professor at one university said that several years ago it was expected that a recent PhD graduate wouldn't have an established research career, and the whole point of an entry level position was for such candidates to have an opportunity to become established. However nowadays they want applicants to already be established before they even get a job! He acknowledged that this results in recent PhD graduates being unable to bridge the gap between PhD and employment, but said that isn't his problem... unemployment is so high that he can recruit established researchers into entry level positions, so there's no incentive for him to give an opportunity to a true entry level researcher. So now I am utterly disheartened because there seems to be absolutely no way for me to bridge this gap, and no way for me to get a job. Why did I waste my time doing the PhD? Someone should have told me that universities won't employ recent PhD graduates nowadays :(

Quote From mlis: As a recent PhD graduate I only have a couple of papers I wrote with my supervisor a couple of years ago, plus my thesis. Can you get any more publications out of your thesis work, in collaboration with your former supervisor? New publications would have far more impact on your CV than your thesis alone. Do you still have access to a uni careers service? They might be able to look at your CV/applications to see if you're missing any tricks with regard to 'selling yourself' for particular jobs.

I think I can get 2-3 papers out of my thesis, and I'm currently trying to write these with my ex-supervisor, in my spare time when I'm not at my call centre job. However he has said it could take 12 months or more to actually get these accepted for publication. The issue is that this still does not constitute being "research active" - I still won't be an established researcher with half a dozen publications and research grants issuing copiously from my rear end. I contacted the most recent university who rejected me and asked if 2-3 PhD-related publications would be enough for my application to be considered seriously, and was advised that it would not. So I'm not even sure why I'm wasting my time writing them, and I don't see what else I can do :(

Hi Mlis, I'm sorry you have to go through such a horrible situation. I wonder if you can do some teaching instead of working in a call centre? My uni employ PhD students and those who are in the gap like you to teach undergraduate courses. It doesn't pay very well (no pay in summer term of holidays for example), but at least you get to stay in an academic environment and have access to research facilities?

Last year I did a couple of hours teaching per week. This did not provide me with an office or a desk, nor any research funds or equipment, nor access to a lab. I had access to a classroom for the duration of the class and that was all. This year they don't need any external lecturers, and they said they're trying to allocate teaching hours to full-time staff where possible as they don't have the money to spare for external lecturers such as myself. I have spoken to the careers service, and it's plain to everyone concerned that my failure to even get an interview is solely due to the fact that universities immediately put my application form in the bin due to a lack of recent publications. One feedback message from a university stated "We only consider applicants with 4-6 recent publications. Please feel free to re-apply if/when you meet this criteria". I am unsure how I can possibly address this issue as an unemployed PhD graduate with no funds or facilities, especially when I'm working another job to pay the rent. My ex-supervisor is kindly helping me to draft two papers related to my thesis, but he is not obliged to do so, and without his help I would be up s*** creek in terms of being able to publish anything at all. However I'm not sure where I can produce a total of 4-6 publications from, without having the funds and facilities to do more research studies. I doubt that many PhDs graduate with four recent publications... some graduate with NO publications... so how are PhD graduates supposed to get entry level academic jobs?!

Hi Mlis, Sorry to hear you are having a tough time. I was just wondering if you have applied for any other jobs outside of academia? I don't know what field you are in, but could you try working in industry? I know it may not be your first career choice but industry probably won't care about recent publications, and you may still get to do some research. I work in biological sciences, so could apply for jobs at a pharmaceutical company, for example. They may not require a PhD necessarily, but often you get employed in a higher salary band than others who are doing the same role, but don't have the same qualifications. Additionally, can you do a postdoc of some sort? Or is that the sort of thing you have been applying for already? Apologies if you've already done this sort of thing, I was just thinking that perhaps you need to have a bit of a rethink about career direction to get your confidence back and get some more work experience. I can imagine it must be utterly disheartening to be in your situation, but there will be a job out there for you somewhere! Getting through a PhD requires determination and tenaciousness (if that's even a word!) so you must already have these qualities - and it will pay off in the end!! Best of luck.

My skills aren't of much value outside academia. Employers outside academia typically say I'm overqualified and lack commercial experience. Also there are virtually no non-academic jobs in my field where I live, and I can't move due to having a family and a mortgage (both of which rely on my partner's salary). I've been applying for absolutely any academic job within an hour's drive of my home, without success. I haven't even had an interview, and have been rejected outright for every single one due to having insufficient publications. I can't magic up 4-6 publications as an unemployed PhD graduate... two perhaps, but not 4-6 :( In order to get my call centre job I had to pretend I don't have qualifications; the job is soul destroying, and what's even more soul destroying is the knowledge that all of my hard work is so detrimental that I have to pretend I didn't do it. My life feels like an utter waste; I'm reduced to the level of those who didn't even get a GCSE :(

I don't think you can get away from the fact that academic life is inherently competitive. You won't be the first to have to write up papers from a PhD while pulling pints or stacking shelves. If you haven't talked to the careers service at university about how to sell your PhD to non academic employers I recommend you do this immediately. Then you need to decide whether you want to stay in academia, or you want a non academic career. If you want the former, you will have to make yourself more competitive and attractive compared to your peers. Just accept that if you do, you are going to have to be prepared for constant rejection and knockbacks and still have the strength to keep hammering away. If you want to move away, there are some good books and blogs about post academic life, and start preparing in a different way. Papers and citations are not important, but being able to focus on your transferable skills will be. I really recommend http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/ or the book "So what are you going to do with that?" By Susan Basalla and Maggie Debelius.

Quote From mlis: My skills aren't of much value outside academia. Employers outside academia typically say I'm overqualified and lack commercial experience. Also there are virtually no non-academic jobs in my field where I live, and I can't move due to having a family and a mortgage (both of which rely on my partner's salary). I've been applying for absolutely any academic job within an hour's drive of my home, without success. I haven't even had an interview, and have been rejected outright for every single one due to having insufficient publications. I can't magic up 4-6 publications as an unemployed PhD graduate... two perhaps, but not 4-6 :( In order to get my call centre job I had to pretend I don't have qualifications; the job is soul destroying, and what's even more soul destroying is the knowledge that all of my hard work is so detrimental that I have to pretend I didn't do it. My life feels like an utter waste; I'm reduced to the level of those who didn't even get a GCSE :( Please don't feel that your life is a waste - getting a PhD is a huge achievement in itself, although I can understand why it doesn't feel like that at the moment. I have worked in a call centre myself (after my MRes - I also had to downplay my qualifications) so I know how utterly mind-numbing it can be. However, is there any possibility of promotion within the call centre? I totally understand that you don't want to be there for any longer than you have to, but I wonder if you gave yourself a goal within that job you may find it less demoralising? Additionally, you may acquire other skills, e.g. team leadership or management skills, that may help you in the future. I wish I could give you more advice but it sounds like you are doing everything you can. I just hope you can see that it does not reflect on you or your abilities - you are clearly a hard-working, motivated person and you haven't done anything wrong. I don't know of any recent phd graduates who have 4-6 publications, so I'm not sure how anyone is expected to get a job based on that. I know this sounds trite, but don't give up, keep trying, and good luck.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding but... you said you already had two publications, and you reckon you can get 2-3 more out of your thesis, so doesn't that take you to the magic 4-6? If you're limited geographically then you need to make sure you are well known to your target unis. If it's a choice between you and another candidate with the same track record but who is known to them, they'll probably choose the other candidate. If your working hours permit, see if there are seminar series at target unis you could go to as an interested outsider. Once there you can get chatting to people who work there and make yourself known. If there's a relevant professional body, see if they have occasional local meetings you could attend if you can juggle your shifts around it. Ask people to bear you in mind if anything comes up in the future. Applying for advertised jobs is only one route - develop a rapport with someone who might be willing to write you in to a future project grant. Or once you have those publications under your belt, apply for fellowships (but make enquiries of eligibility sooner) And do go to your careers service. I bet you have more marketable skills than you realise, and they will help you see this.

Hi Mlis, Really sorry to hear this and I completely understand. I am current third year phd and becoming increasingly worried about this myself. I have also considered quitting my phd because I am worried I will not find academic work and as a result find myself over-qualified for 'normal' jobs. I definitely find myself starting to disagree with the recruitment of phd students. Universities need the students and the money but are they putting that ahead of the the student's needs? I have found that phd student recruitment needs to be more realistic in explaining to students how difficult it will be to get a job. Since I started my phd the world has changed drastically with economic recession and all sorts of problems which all makes it worse. You are definitely right in that it used to be that a phd student had a phd but now there are so many more expectations and demands on phd students to have teaching experience and to be published also. I think this is probably why many people with a phd choose to work elsewhere and leave academia. What also worries me is that even if you get a job, many academic jobs are temporary and you have to proove yourself often for several years before you are given a permenant job. Are you certain you want an academic career? Have you got any other work experience which you could take further? It may be that you continue your search as long as you can put your life on hold but you may eventually have to retrain or work else where. Before you graduated where you aware of the job market in academia? I think the professor who said 'it's not my problem' sums up the issue and there needs to be a drastic change. Talented people are leaving academia and going elsewhere simply because there are no jobs and it is academia's loss. I hear someone say once things pick up there will be lots of jobs when the 'dead wood falls off' but who knows how long that will take. I find myself, even just starting my third year, becomming increasingly realistic about this phd and I don't even think I will bother with conferences any more. I know it will be hard to get a job and I dont want to put my life on hold or work in temp positions for god knows how long, I also want to do other things. Maybe you could try to find a research post somewhere, even if it is unrelated but it will still show your research skills, keep writing and keep up-to-date in your topic. I hope things pick up but it is hard to answer when they will!

Just noticed you said you had to pretend you had no qualifications - it is dreadful, isn't it? That this is what the world seems to have come to where hard work and qualifications mean nothing. Someone I know who has just an undergradate degree at honours level also only found work by removing it from their CV. I also know people close to completeing and what they say is to similar to you - overqualified for a lot of jobs but no luck with academia and they sound almost ashamed of their phd. I know saying a phd is a huge achievement is no help right now because it is obviously irrelevant to you right now. But someone said to me, despite the lack of jobs would you want to be someone with no degree or no phd? And for me the answer was no!

======= Date Modified 18 Jan 2012 21:13:35 ======= Ahhh Mlis, tell me about it! I passed my viva just over a year ago, great feedback from examiners etc, and today I signed on for the first time in my life. I hadn't even been in the Jobs office before today. It was rather soul destroying. I was lucky enough that about 3 weeks after my viva I was starting a new job, as a part time lecturer, but it was ridiculous. I was teaching stuff to students, including MSc's, that I'd never even studied before; I had roughly 3 days to learn the topic and put together a lecture for it at the start. Then as the classes piled on the time ran out and I was working 15 hour days (edited to mention - working 15 hours, paid only for the 3 or so hours teaching I did that day...) just to keep up with the teaching, never mind attending all the meetings, supervisions etc that I had to do. I was told I'd be able to get another contract for this year (it was a series of semester-long contracts, so 4ish months at a time) but then just before Christmas it became clear that there wouldn't be money in the budget to renew my contract. I knew that it was a starting job, plenty of teaching experience but absolutely zero for research and no time to even write up from my phd, so I'm way behind on that. I was looking for other jobs the whole time last year, and have applied for many, mostly ones that I'm over qualified for, some that I'm underqualified for but desperate. One lecturing job I applied for had 90 other applicants, who all had several years post doc experience over me. I've been finding it nigh on impossible to get postdoc experience - only one funded advertised position which was before I even submitted, nothing last year...and before Christmas I began the process of emailing people I'd met before, cold-calling academics and people in government labs etc, and sending my CV out all over the place. Even doing this was depressing, and still no postdoc or funding opportunities have come up. Everyone has the same story - no money for postdocs, government reducing funding for research etc. It's really really crap. I haven't got another job yet, I have some minor savings that I'm trying to live off in the hope that I'll get a job before having to go to the call centre, but it's just the most horrible experience. I feel very angry like I know many others do, at what feels like a lie that I was sold, go to uni, work hard, get a good job at the end, which obviously hasn't worked out that way. I've gone through the whole range of emotions, anger, resentment, envious of family/friends who are doing well, and I swear I'll punch the next person who says something will come up. So I totally know how you're feeling. I'm not sure what field you are in, but does the whole networking thing really work in your field? So far I've been still presenting my research at whatever conference I can afford to go to, usually just small local meetings, but it's getting my name known a bit better. I've also made a website to try and get my stuff a bit more accessible, and am considering writing articles for a local newspaper, to see if I can generate a bit of cash that way. Is this anything you can do? I know being restricted geographically can make things much more difficult, but there is online tutoring you can do - not great money, but still academic-ish a bit... - and depending on your field, doing some science in society stuff can really help. I know it seems like a waste of time to have done the PhD by now, but still, we've done it, and we just have to make the most of it. But don't feel too alone in being peeved off about the whole thing and flailing around looking for a decent job, I'm right there with you!

Quote From algaequeen: I feel very angry like I know many others do, at what feels like a lie that I was sold, go to uni, work hard, get a good job at the end, which obviously hasn't worked out that way. I've gone through the whole range of emotions, anger, resentment, envious of family/friends who are doing well, and I swear I'll punch the next person who says something will come up. So I totally know how you're feeling. I could not have put this better myself. I TOTALLY know how you're feeling algaequeen. I hope things pick up for us all soon but I'm not optimistic...

This thread has really struck a chord with me, too. Academia has always been challenging to develop a career in (as long as I've been interested in it, at least), and now it's almost impossible. I did everything right: good grades, glowing references, conferences, papers, abstracts... Little has come of it, as far as this country is concerned. I'm not the kind of person to put a damper on things, but it seems like universities are winding down somewhat...department closures, redundancies, supposed mergers, quite a few in financial difficulties... I know that if I was an established academic in this climate, I'd be staying put until I'm carried out of the doors in a stretcher. I think that many of us are from the same generation and we were supposed to be the socially mobile cohort that had it all and could not fail: get good grades, do 'uni' and you're set for life. I consider it small recompense, that I'm not amongst the students paying up to £9, 000 per year for the privilege, let alone the £3, 000 per year prior to that. Sour grapes, I know. It really is rather bleak at the moment, as far as I see it. I'm fortunate to have a job that relates to my PhD, but it's really underpaid for what it should be, with travel expenses making it almost unprofitable for me. The fact is, private sector employers can get away with it at the moment because there's such a surfeit of postgrads with MSc's and PhD's. In fact, my place of work can afford to be incredibly picky because of this. I've probably mentioned this before, but (as I think Badhaircut pointed out) there are a lot of consultancies out there, particularly market research companies, that hire PhD grads with qual and/or quan skills. As I need to do, get yourself a profile on sites like Linkedin (sp?) and also register with specialist recruiters. The money may not often be very much, but it's a hull in which to weather the storm until things hopefully pick up for us.

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Record-breaking accomplishments on jobs and unemployment under biden.

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US President Joe Biden speaks about his Investing in America agenda, in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, on ... [+] May 8, 2024. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

The May jobs and unemployment report is out today, and it shows a continuing strong economy. The Biden Administration’s robust and durable track record on jobs and unemployment is breaking records, putting up some of the best results we’ve seen in half a century.

First, the numbers. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that May saw an additional 272,000 jobs created, above most forecasters’ expectations. Unemployment ticked up from 3.9% to 4%, although such slight single-month changes are statistically meaningless (if the rate rises for several months in a row, then you have a trend.)

These are very strong numbers, especially this far into an economic recovery. The White House took a justified victory lap, with President Biden noting “unemployment has been at or below 4% for 30 months—the longest stretch in 50 years.”

Jobs increased in several sectors—health care, leisure and hospitality, and professional services. And wages continued rising, with average hourly earnings moving upward. BLS notes that “over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.1%.”

Should we worry that higher wages are causing inflation? No. Although wage gains are positive, their rate of increase is slowing. And our inflation is driven by structural factors in supply chains, housing, and aggressive pricing by companies. Even Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has moderated his views, saying in March that wages are not the main reason for persistent inflation.

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For those who care about inequality and fairness, wage trends of the last several years have been strong for lower-wage workers. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has documented that “real wages” (adjusted for inflation) “of low-wage workers grew 12.1% between 2019 and 2023.” If Republicans in Congress would support increasing the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 per hour since 2009, we’d see even stronger gains for low-wage workers

These gains for low-wage workers come from the continuing tight labor market and economic growth, but also state increases in the minimum wage. 30 states now have minimum wages higher than the federal level. The 20 laggards are mostly traditional red states like Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and South Carolina, although some “purple” states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania haven’t raised their minimums due to Republican control of at least one state legislative house.

Are there worries in the jobs report? A few, but not major ones. One important indicator to watch is Black unemployment, which ticked up to 6%. Because of historic and ongoing discrimination, Black employment lags behind that for whites, and it can be an early signal of a weakening economy.

The Black unemployment rate is traditionally volatile, and labor economists like EPI’s Elyse Gould note the importance of staying at full employment for “historically disadvantaged groups…who always experience a tougher labor market.” (Gould is one of the best analysts we have of employment and the monthly BLS report; see her blog here.)

Tight labor markets during Biden’s presidency have helped. In April, we saw the lowest gap between Black and white unemployment ever recorded, and the Biden Administration has been proactive in addressing persistent racial gaps in employment and society.

But as economist Darrick Hamilton always reminds us, it will take more than just overall tight markets to fully address labor market discrimination. Ultimately, we need formal economic rights and policies like a federal job guarantee to help close these structural gaps.

Biden’s economic track record is particularly strong when you consider that many economists were expecting a recession by now. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers spoke for many economists in 2022, saying a recession was “almost inevitable,” while in 2023 Summers predicted a “meaningful and significant slowdown” for the economy, again like many other forecasters.

Can it last? It wouldn’t be surprising to see some slowdown in jobs and wage growth in the coming months, given the historic gains we’ve seen so far. But there’s nothing inevitable about recessions. Economists like James K. Galbraith of the University of Texas argue that both growth and recession are driven in substantial part by policy choices, and intelligent policy can help avoid downturns.

Biden’s policies have focused not only on sustaining overall growth, but on finding ways to get growth’s benefits to lower-wage workers and economically troubled regions of the country. Based on today’s jobs and employment numbers, so far, so good.

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FACT SHEET: President   Biden Announces New Actions to Keep Families   Together

Since his first day in office, President Biden has called on Congress to secure our border and address our broken immigration system. As Congressional Republicans have continued to put partisan politics ahead of national security – twice voting against the toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades – the President and his Administration have taken actions to secure the border, including:

• Implementing executive actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum when encounters are high;
• Deploying record numbers of law enforcement personnel, infrastructure, and technology to the Southern border;
• Seizing record amounts of fentanyl at our ports of entry;
• Revoking the visas of CEOs and government officials outside the U.S. who profit from migrants coming to the U.S. unlawfully; and
• Expanding efforts to dismantle human smuggling networks and prosecuting individuals who violate immigration laws.

President Biden believes that securing the border is essential. He also believes in expanding lawful pathways and keeping families together, and that immigrants who have been in the United States for decades, paying taxes and contributing to their communities, are part of the social fabric of our country. The Day One immigration reform plan that the President sent to Congress reflects both the need for a secure border and protections for the long-term undocumented. While Congress has failed to act on these reforms, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked to strengthen our lawful immigration system. In addition to vigorously defending the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals) policy, the Administration has extended Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients and streamlined, expanded, and instituted new reunification programs so that families can stay together while they complete the immigration process.  Still, there is more that we can do to bring peace of mind and stability to Americans living in mixed-status families as well as young people educated in this country, including Dreamers. That is why today, President Biden announced new actions for people who have been here many years to keep American families together and allow more young people to contribute to our economy.   Keeping American Families Together

• Today, President Biden is announcing that the Department of Homeland Security will take action to ensure that U.S. citizens with noncitizen spouses and children can keep their families together.
• This new process will help certain noncitizen spouses and children apply for lawful permanent residence – status that they are already eligible for – without leaving the country.
• These actions will promote family unity and strengthen our economy, providing a significant benefit to the country and helping U.S. citizens and their noncitizen family members stay together.
• In order to be eligible, noncitizens must – as of June 17, 2024 – have resided in the United States for 10 or more years and be legally married to a U.S. citizen, while satisfying all applicable legal requirements. On average, those who are eligible for this process have resided in the U.S. for 23 years.
• Those who are approved after DHS’s case-by-case assessment of their application will be afforded a three-year period to apply for permanent residency. They will be allowed to remain with their families in the United States and be eligible for work authorization for up to three years. This will apply to all married couples who are eligible.  
• This action will protect approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.

Easing the Visa Process for U.S. College Graduates, Including Dreamers

• President Obama and then-Vice President Biden established the DACA policy to allow young people who were brought here as children to come out of the shadows and contribute to our country in significant ways. Twelve years later, DACA recipients who started as high school and college students are now building successful careers and establishing families of their own.
• Today’s announcement will allow individuals, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers, who have earned a degree at an accredited U.S. institution of higher education in the United States, and who have received an offer of employment from a U.S. employer in a field related to their degree, to more quickly receive work visas.
• Recognizing that it is in our national interest to ensure that individuals who are educated in the U.S. are able to use their skills and education to benefit our country, the Administration is taking action to facilitate the employment visa process for those who have graduated from college and have a high-skilled job offer, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers. 

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U.S. News and Word Report has again placed MIT’s graduate program in engineering at the top of its annual rankings, released today. The Institute has held the No. 1 spot since 1990, when the magazine first ranked such programs.

The MIT Sloan School of Management also placed highly, in rankings announced April 9. It occupies the No. 5 spot for the best graduate business programs. 

Among individual engineering disciplines, MIT placed first in six areas: aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical engineering, chemical engineering, computer engineering (tied with Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley), electrical/electronic/communications engineering, materials engineering, and mechanical engineering. It placed second in biomedical engineering/bioengineering (tied with Duke University, Georgia Tech, and Stanford) and nuclear engineering.

In the rankings of individual MBA specialties, MIT placed first in four areas: business analytics, information systems, production/operations, and project management (tied with Carnegie Mellon University). It placed second in supply chain/logistics.

U.S. News bases its rankings of graduate schools of engineering and business on two types of data: reputational surveys of deans and other academic officials, and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research, and students. The magazine’s less-frequent rankings of graduate programs in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities are based solely on reputational surveys. Among the 12 peer-review disciplines ranked this year, MIT placed first in computer science.

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Elektrostal , city, Moscow oblast (province), western Russia . It lies 36 miles (58 km) east of Moscow city. The name, meaning “electric steel,” derives from the high-quality-steel industry established there soon after the October Revolution in 1917. During World War II , parts of the heavy-machine-building industry were relocated there from Ukraine, and Elektrostal is now a centre for the production of metallurgical equipment. Pop. (2006 est.) 146,189.

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Struggling to get stable full-time work after a decade post PHD

Struggling to find full-time stable work thats not short contracts or freelance - Medical Research PhD grad.

Struggling to find meaningful full-time stable work currently freelancing PhD Trained Scientist should I retrain / persevere / pivot etc? And what trigger points should these be?

Summary: 36YO Male trained in medical research, completed PhD, but I've struggled to find any stable work with long-term career potential or salary increase, currently mostly unemployed, but with a freelance medical writing job 1-2 days per week. Pls Help! Thanks for reading :D.

Training, Work Experience & Life:

6 years High School 94.95 percentile (first in the state of NSW Australia in Biology) 4 years UnderGrad Medical Sciences

1 year First Class Honours [1publication]

1 year unemployed

4 years Doctorate PhD (Medical Research) [3 publications]

8 months unemployed (was applying every day)

Trialed the GAMSAT Exam non-seriously Score: 60 [Applied but not accepted to 2 medical schools]

2 years at a startup R&D tax consultancy ($45K AUD/year) {Leave reason: Couldn't get any higher raise after 2 years working out of person's living room}

1 year and half medium sized R&D tax consultancy ($60K AUD/year) {Leave reason: Constant Bullying by Partners of Firm, I have no idea why, it may have been because I was working 4 days/week, but they never mentioned it until the last 2 weeks after 2 years there}

Daughter was born (Miracle of Life, but severely limits my ability to moonlight second job, side-hustle and study outside business hours)

3 years at a hospital research group ($75K AUD/year) {Leave Reason: Research funding expended, staff contract ended} [2 publications]

9 months Army Deployment IT computer service helpdesk technician ($104K AUD/year) {Leave Reason: Temporary Contract Ended}

1 month unemployed

2 weeks Freelance Medical Writing have 1-3 days worth of work per week depending ($20-30 AUD/hour)

Situation: For the last 5 months, I've been applying for jobs every second day outside business hours, on the second day I've been doing something to improve my resume (this could be doing a pro-bono project) or messaging someone for advice on LinkedIn, or just cold contacting someone for advice or proposing work for them. I feel like I'm getting no where, I've applied for more 30 jobs that I've hit all the selection criteria. I've had no emails back, or calls, or interviews. I've had 2 interview invitations, but when I tried to arrange a time they disappeared and stopped responding. I've had 2 rejection emails. No-one is willing to provide any feedback. I've cold contacted more than 40 people in senior positions in LinkedIn and emails (no replies). I've also contacted several HR agencies and they don't reply at all. Theres also a lack of jobs in the area, it takes 4-5 hours of searching for me to find an appropriate job, they are rare.

Question: I feel like there is something majorly wrong with the economics of this industry and job market. I'm convinced that it's not me, and the economics of Research and Development is just broken. I was a fool to not have researched the job market properly before studying Medical Research but there's just no data out there when I started this journey. The career guides had a whole lot of Fictional descriptions of different things that you would do as a medical or biotechnologist, but in reality these industries and companies only existed in Boston or Germany, all the while the universities around the world were producing truckloads of graduates in these fields and specialities. I'm at a stuck point, where I feel like I've pretty much exhausted all my options, and I've done all the spin off side jobs that are related to medical and health jobs, none of them have any stable career path. I want a job where I'm not at risk of losing it every year, and I fall unemployed for a few months after each job. My fear is that one day, the short-term unemployment periods turns into long-term unemployment.

I'm thinking seriously to work part-time 3days/week and potentially study for the Medicine Pre-selection Exam parttime (Called the GAMSAT) 3 days/week, 1 day/week family. Exam is super super difficult and will take a few years to get a good enough score, however, I feel like it is a quantitative measure that I can meaningfully progress in, rather than the zero replies I'm getting from 5months of job applications. After getting into Medicine School I can apply for an Army Study Scholarship $65K/year. I am OK with not getting into Medical School after 5-7 years of trying, at least I can say that I did my best on my death bed.

My Wife is super pissed off at me for suggesting this (Medicine Option), she says I need to support the family by applying for full-time jobs continuously and to talk to HR agencies. She says I'm a coward for trying to run away from the problem by attempting the GAMSAT exam, she doesn't think I will ever pass. I am fully committed to working part-time 3days per week, and get a full time job in the short term to support family however, I'm wary of the pending doom of long term unemployment, and just unviability and competitiveness of research and development jobs. If I can get a full time job in the next 2 months I'll take it, but I can't keep applying for jobs for another half-year or two, it just seems really idiotic and unproductive.

Please give me your opinion and wisdom redditors?

What should I do? Retrain / Perservere / Pivot / Else?

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Biden campaign co-chair claims he has no idea why latinos are fleeing the prez.

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The co-chairman of President Biden’s re-election campaign admitted Sunday he is unsure why polls indicate the commander in chief is hemorrhaging support among Latino voters .

“Well, I don’t know. I think that you got to play this thing out and see actually how it works. Latino voters are like everybody else,” co-Chair Mitch Landrieu told NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked about the latest polling.

“They move around from space to space. You see this with African American voters as well.”

WATCH: Biden campaign national co-chair says he doesn’t know why the president is losing ground with Latino voters. @MitchLandrieu : “I don’t know. … Latino voters are like everybody else. They move around from space to space. You see this with African American voters as well.” pic.twitter.com/uFHclHkNH9 — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 23, 2024

A recent Equis poll  that sampled 1,592 Latino voters in battleground states concluded that 41% trust former President Donald Trump, 78, over Biden, 81, on immigration — part of the upward trend for The Donald.

Democrats had once held an advantage with Latinos on the issue of immigration, but now the key voting bloc in swing states is becoming disillusioned with that they perceive as “broken promises” from Democrats on matters such as a pathway to citizenship, according to the poll.

Scores of other polls have also shown a dip in Biden’s support among Latinos.

During the 2020 presidential election, Biden notched 65% support from Hispanic voters compared to 32% for Trump, according to exit poll data .

Some strategists have fretted that independent hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken a considerable bite out of Biden’s standing with Latino and Hispanic voters.

Survey data from Voto Latino , a group that works to register Latinos to vote, found that Biden bested Trump 59% to 39% in swing states. But when third-party contenders were added to the fray such as Kennedy, Cornel West and Jill Stein, Biden scored 47% to Trump’s 34%. That poll was released earlier this month and surveyed 2,000 registered Latinos.

Democrats have also faced similar warning signs about Biden’s performance with black and younger voters, though some allies such as Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) have downplayed those concerns.

Landrieu did acknowledge that “the border is in trouble, and it has been for the past 20 or 30 years.

“Joe Biden on Day One, on Day One, sent a comprehensive immigration reform proposal to Congress. They did nothing with it,” he claimed of the hot-button issue, inflamed by Biden’s disastrous open-border policies.

For months, Biden and Trump have been locked in a fairly static rematch, with very little significant swings in the polling. That could change this week as the pair go head-to-head in a televised national debate Thursday.

“Everything that we do is high-risk. I mean, every campaign that you have is going to be close, so everything that you do has to work,” Landrieu said.

“It really doesn’t matter how Donald Trump shows up. If he comes in unhinged like he is most of the time, or he sits there and is quiet, people are going to know that he’s a twice impeached felon.”

The verbal bout, which will be hosted by CNN in Atlanta, is much earlier in the campaign cycle than typical presidential debates. Biden’s and Trump’s teams bypassed the Commission on Presidential Debates to orchestrate the showdown.

Under the CNN rules, the microphone will cut off when it’s the opposing candidate’s turn to speak.

“Who knows what Donald Trump is going to do at any minute or any time? I bet that he’s going to talk over the microphone times like he does, but the best way to fight a bully is to stand up to him, Landrieu said. “And Joe Biden has done that before.

“Donald Trump’s presidency was awful.”

The debate is widely seen as a key test of concerns about Biden’s age. He is the oldest president in US history and would be 86 at the end of a hypothetical second term.

Trump, who just turned 78 earlier this month, would surpass Biden as the oldest president if he wins and serves out a full term.

“First of all, Joe Biden doesn’t have any concerns about his mental fitness, nor do I,” Landrieu said. “I spent an incredible amount of time with Joe Biden. That’s just a fade that the other side is pushing.”

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Lifelong learning: stanford gse student collects her master’s degree after 80 years in education.

It’s been a minute since Virginia “Ginger” Hislop was a student at Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE).

When she started at the GSE in 1936 — then the Stanford University School of Education — her plan was to get her bachelor’s of education, which she did in 1940, and obtain her master’s of education so she could teach, which she started directly after.

The goal: to help grow and provide opportunities for young minds by following in the footsteps of her grandmother, who taught in Kansas before the Civil War, and her Aunt Nora, who was the principal of a school in West Los Angeles, and pursue the field of education.

However, just after completing her coursework and just before turning in her final thesis, her then-boyfriend George Hislop AB ’41, a GSE student in Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), got called in to serve during World War II, prompting the pair to get married and Virginia Hislop to leave campus before graduating.

“I thought it was one of the things I could pick up along the way if I needed it and I always enjoyed studying, so that wasn’t really a great concern to me — and getting married was,” said Hislop, who was born in Palo Alto and resides in Yakima, Washington.

Now, 83 years after leaving campus and living in service to learning, Hislop returned to Stanford  to finish what she started and receive her graduate degree.

“A fierce advocate for equity and the opportunity to learn … today we are proud to confer the master of arts in education to our 105 year-old graduate,” GSE Dean Daniel Schwartz said in a speech at the beginning of the GSE’s commencement ceremony on Sunday, June 16.

Virginia Hislop (right) accepts her diploma for her master of arts in education at the GSE’s 2024 commencement ceremony from Dean Dan Schwartz. She collects her degree after more than 80 years doing education work in schools and on school boards in Yakima, Washington. (Photo: Charles Russo)

Family ties to Stanford 

In many ways, Hislop’s work in education after leaving Stanford began with her children.

When her daughter Anne started first grade in Washington, Hislop advocated on her behalf so that she could take advanced English, rather than a home economics course being suggested by the school.

“I felt that she could learn to cook at home and it was more important that she learn more academic skills at school,” said Hislop, whose daughter Anne Hislop Jensen MA ’68 and son-in-law Doug Jensen, MA ’68, also graduated from the GSE.

After that first encounter, Hislop was moved to join the school board to have more of a say in what children were being taught, to help set them up for success.

“I felt that all the kids should have an opportunity to develop their potential as best they could, and that everybody should have a crack at higher education if they wanted,” said Hislop,  who stayed on the school board for 13 years before moving her involvement to the city, county and state level in Washington state.

Some of her roles included chairing the Yakima School Board of Directors; becoming a founding member of the board of directors for Yakima Community College, and helping to start Heritage University in Toppenish, Washington, where she served on the board for 20 years.

“I’ve been doing this work for years and it’s nice to be recognized with this degree,” she said.

Leadership and longevity in learning

Nowadays, Hislop spends most of her time doing community work, reading, socializing and working in her garden — a routine she says has kept her sharp.

“The biggest lesson I’ve taken from her is that you never really stop learning,” said Doug Jensen, “She’s a voracious reader, and at 105 she’s still actively moving and shaking. No moss grows under her feet.”

Looking back on her career, Hislop credits her time at Stanford and the things she’s learned from community partners along the way for her ability to impact students.

“I think I did good things for our local school system and I helped broaden it out,” she said. “For me, this degree is an appreciation of the many years I’ve put in working for the schools in the Yakima area and on different boards.”

At the GSE Diploma ceremony, Schwartz concurred, saying Hislop “led a life of tremendous educational accomplishment.” Her fellow graduates and their families gave her a standing ovation. 

When Hislop rose from her seat, donned in cap and gown, to walk across the stage and receive her master’s hood, the applause roared once again. She greeted Schwartz on stage and was handed her diploma. She smiled for the cameras. Her grandkids and great-grandkids waved and cheered. 

“My goodness,” Hislop said. “I’ve waited a long time for this.”

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