[soup10]

>Deciding that millions of new graduates aren't getting jobs because they are lazy is one of the more ignorant and lazy arguments I've ever seen.

How do you interpret the linked article then? "Mopping floors" doesn't literally mean mopping floors, it means settling for the jobs that are available, not the jobs you want.

[akeefer]

Your presumption is that there are jobs available; according to the bureau of labor statistics, as of March 2012 there were 3.4 unemployed people for every job opening (roughly double the ratio at the start of the recession back in December 2007).

[soup10]

I don't know what the overall employment rate has to do with this.

The article looks at the relative employment rate of people who have attended college vs those who haven't. People who have attended college should be more qualified for more jobs than those who haven't. They should be more employed, but they aren't. The simplest explanation(and the one that matches what I've seen/experienced) is that people who have more education are too picky about the jobs and careers they are willing to consider and are therefore finding it harder to get a job.

[_delirium]

People who have attended college should be more qualified for more jobs than those who haven't. They should be more employed, but they aren't.

In fact they are more employed, according to the article, if they actually graduated (as opposed to merely attending). The article gives, for people 25 and up, the following unemployment rates:

    Overall: 6.6% unemployed
    High school, no college: 7.7% unemployed
    Some college, no degree: 8% unemployed
    2-year college degree: 6.2% unemployed
    4-year college degree: 4% unemployed

So clearly the two "have degree" categories have lower unemployment rates than the no-degree categories do. The article seems to want to conflate people who did and didn't graduate into one "attended college" category.

[hnal943]

Statistics on job openings discount the option of working for yourself, which is what holdenc suggested with his "Mop It Up" business.