"As I make the rounds of college commencements, I wish I had better news. But here are the facts (courtesy of the Economic Policy Institute):
1. Young college graduates are still doing worse than young graduates were doing before the Great Recession. Their unemployment rate is now 7.2 percent (compared with 5.5 percent in 2007), and many are working in jobs that don’t require a college degree.
2. Their wages are 2.5% lower were the wages of young college grads in 2007.
3. Meanwhile, college costs have grown far more rapidly than family incomes -- forcing students to take out loans that, in this fragile labor market, are difficult to repay.
The problem isn’t that new college graduates lack the right education or skills. Most have what it takes. The problem is overall demand for goods and services in the U.S. economy remains perilously weak -- so employers don’t feel the need to do much hiring or to pay good wages.
Why is demand weak? Because most American consumers don’t have the purchasing power, as almost all of the gains have been going to the top 1 percent -- who spend only a fraction of what they earn. Repeat after me: The record inequality we're experiencing is bad for the economy."