How female graduates are worst hit by the weak US economy

U.S. students graduating in 2015 are entering a weak economy with stagnant wages, and young female graduates will continue to earn less than their male counterparts, according to a report released this week.

Research by the Economic Policy Institute showed that new high school graduates and college seniors can expect high levels of unemployment and entry-level wages that are lower than they were 15 years ago.

Only young male college graduates have wages now that are higher than they were in 2000, and their wages have only improved 1 percent since 2000, the EPI researchers said.

Meanwhile, young female college graduates have wages that are 4.4 percent lower than in 2000. On average, wages of young female graduates remain far lower than those of young male graduates, regardless of educational attainment.

Among young high school graduates, women earn 14.9 percent less than men, while among young college graduates, women earn 15.7 percent less than men.

That means those young female college graduates will earn approximately 84 cents for every dollar their male colleagues do, which beats the 78 cents earned by all women for every dollar men make.

“Graduating into a weak economy means that, through no fault of their own, the Class of 2015 faces weaker job opportunities, lower wages, and lower overall earnings,” said Will Kimball, one of the report’s three co-authors.

The Great Recession officially ended in 2009 and while the slow recovery has hurt all workers’ ability to find jobs, it has been especially hard on young people who often are the last to be hired and the first to be fired.

“The class of 2015 is the seventh consecutive class to enter the labor market during a period of profound weakness,” said co-author Alyssa Davis.

“Though job prospects for this group are better than they were for the several classes that graduated before them,” she added, “many recent graduates remain underemployed or idled by the weak economy.”

The jobless rate for workers under 25 is more than double the jobless rate overall, EPI said.

This article is published in collaboration with The Thomson Reuters Foundation. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Leslie Gevirtz is a writer at The Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Image: Profile of students taking their seats for the diploma ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge REUTERS/Brian Snyder.