More than 90% of lifeguards, bartenders, cashiers and postal workers now have college degrees, according to a report that finds too many graduates chasing too few jobs that require their advanced level of education.
The Overeducated Workforce Report from MyPerfectResume comes as college graduates entering the workforce face higher unemployment than their parents, with AI technology contributing to the tightest white-collar job market in decades.
It found that college graduates currently fill 68% to 95% of service jobs paying between $29,000 and $40,000 a year, despite these roles requiring at best a high school education and no prior experience. That includes more than 9 in 10 telemarketers, shampooers, movie projectionists, restaurant hostesses, physical therapist aides and amusement park attendants.
Jasmine Escalera, a career expert at MyPerfectResume, said the report’s analysis of federal data confirms a growing misalignment between the job market and talent pool.
‘It signals that the system is not creating enough opportunities that align with people’s actual skills and experience,” Ms. Escalera said in an email.
She warned that increased use of artificial intelligence in job searches has multiplied applications, making it harder for employers to distinguish the strongest candidates.
“As a result, highly qualified professionals are starting to take roles below their level just to get their foot in the door,” Ms. Escalera said. “This creates a ripple effect across the market, with roles that should be entry- or mid-level being filled by more experienced talent.”
Published Tuesday, the report compares Census Bureau education data with Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projections and wage figures. It defines “overeducated” as entry-level workers with more education than their jobs typically require.
The report’s list of the 20 most overeducated jobs in America also found college degrees adorned the walls of more than 8 in 10 bellhops, receptionists, delivery drivers, parking attendants, hotel clerks and retail service staff.
Rounding out the tally, 75% of salespeople earning a median salary of $35,300 annually graduated from college, as did 69% of couriers, who earn $38,070 a year.
Workforce experts interviewed by The Washington Times said the report confirms that colleges have produced too many liberal arts graduates for jobs that no longer require them.
They pointed to AI automating white-collar management roles that graduates previously filled. They also noted that more employers have listed “3-5 years of experience, no college degree required” for clerical roles.
“In a down market, this is common,” said Sam Wright of Huntr, a Seattle-based AI resume builder. “Many white-collar jobs are transforming and job seekers who are out of work with bills to pay will look for something to fill the income gap.”
New York University marketing instructor Angelica Gianchandani said the trend has added to a growing concentration of workers in entry-level and senior positions.
“The managers, the mentors, the people who translated institutional knowledge into career development, have been systematically eliminated through restructuring, offshoring and now AI,” Ms. Gianchandani said.
“College graduates are stranded,” she added. They arrived at the bottom of a structure that no longer has a middle to move through.”
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that liberal arts, humanities and general social sciences graduates have the highest underemployment rates.
This means that disproportionately high numbers of language, sociology and anthropology graduates work in low-paying service roles while struggling to pay off their educational debts.
“The culprits are academic majors such as queer studies, Black studies, feminist studies and other such studies,” said Walter Block, an economist at Loyola University New Orleans. “The same applies, unhappily, to more traditional arenas such as sociology, literature, history [and] philosophy.”
Employment woes
A recent analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that 5.6% of college graduates ages 22 to 27 were unemployed at the end of last year, well above the overall unemployment rate of 4.2%.
Among recent graduates who found work, the bank reported that more than 40% held jobs that do not require their degree, the most since 2020.
Economist Siri Terjesen, an associate dean at Florida Atlantic University, noted that the average underemployed college graduate earns about $45,000 annually. By comparison, the average college graduate working in a field matching the degree earns $65,000 a year.
“This gap compounds over a career and makes repaying student loans even harder,” Ms. Terjesen said.
She faulted the higher education system for capping the number of students in high-performing programs, pushing others “into a credential arms race for jobs that never needed degrees in the first place.”
Science and technology degrees have remained the most profitable degree paths.
At the same time, the nation has experienced a shortage of plumbers, mechanics and technicians with short-term certifications.
A White House official on Thursday described AI as “essential for national security and for the prosperity of the U.S.”
“The Trump administration is committed to ensuring young men and women in America have the skills and training needed to participate in our turbocharged economy, especially as trillions in investments for semiconductor, pharmaceutical and other high-tech manufacturing continue pouring in,” said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman.
She touted 345,000 new apprentices registered in the first year of the second Trump administration, a 21% increase from the Biden administration’s average.
Higher education trends
The MyPerfectResume report comes as rising student debts and unclear employment paths have pushed more high school graduates into trade schools and apprenticeship programs.
The Bipartisan Policy Center reported last month that half of all bachelor’s program graduates between 2012 and 2021 were underemployed a year later, working off their school debt in low-paying jobs that did not require their degrees.
Of that group, nearly 3 in 4 remained underemployed a decade after graduation. And just 61% of those who started four-year degrees in 2019 completed them within six years, adding to the more than 37 million college dropouts.
College admissions offices have braced for a 15% drop in college applicants this spring, fueled by a years-long decline in U.S. births since 2008.
Meanwhile, a Gallup poll found that just 35% of adults believed a college education was “very important” last year, down from 75% in 2010.
Some higher education insiders said the system must adapt to survive.
“Many employers have required a BA as a cheap way of screening applicants, even for jobs where a college degree isn’t really needed,” said Dick Startz, an educational economist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “It would be good if that sort of credentialism went away.”
According to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, nearly a third of annual job openings through 2031 will require credentials but no degree.
Jonathan Zimmerman, an education history professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said that doesn’t mean fewer people should go to college.
He touted the benefits of a college education in forming good citizens who “make our democracy stronger, even in a weak labor market.”
“We should all be concerned that many college graduates can’t obtain jobs that require their degrees,” Mr. Zimmerman said. “But finding employment isn’t the only reason we go to college.”
