Recent data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank shows unemployment among college graduates ages 22 to 27 climbed to 5.6% in December 2025—similar to what it was in February 2009 during the Great Recession, according to The Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, unemployment fell in 2025 for college nongraduates and increased slightly for older graduates.
Also, between 1990 and 2014, unemployment for young college graduates typically was one to three percentage points lower than for all workers. Unemployment now is about 1.4 percentage points higher for young college graduates than for all workers.
Although more than half of high-school graduates go to college, only 35% of 12th graders score proficient in reading and 22% in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, suggesting many college students are not academically prepared for college or do not even want to go to college.
Additionally, U.S. colleges awarded 2.2 million bachelor’s degrees in 2025, which is about twice as many as in 1990 and double the number of associate’s degrees. Another 860,000 Americans received a master’s degree in 2025—almost triple the 1990 number. Nearly 40% of Americans with a bachelor’s degree now have an advanced degree.
This means college graduates are entering a labor market overwhelmed with credentialed and experienced workers. In the meantime, there is a significant demand for workers in the trades but there are not enough skilled people to hire. An aging population makes things more complicated; in 2025, the number of Americans on Social Security increased by 2 million—about double the average increase during the previous decade—as people increasingly retire and leave vacancies in trade jobs.
In a recent National Federation of Independent Business survey, a Connecticut manufacturer said that “the need for trades is desperate in order for businesses to continue in this country. When the older workforce finally feels able to retire and live a comfortable life, who is going to take their place?”
Fortunately, some white-collar workers have started to understand the advantages of a career in the trades and are making the change. A recent survey from Flex Jobs of more than 3,000 white-collar workers shows more than 60% said they would consider moving to a skilled trade if it offered more money and stability.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Lauren O’Connor, 33, was one semester away from graduating from college and dropped out to avoid more debt and because she was teaching at a Montessori school, which did not require a degree. After years of teaching, making $29 per hour with no benefits, she was burned out and decided to shift her career.
As a pre-apprentice with the plumbers and pipefitters union in 2021, O’Connor initially earned $15 per hour. She now earns $45 per hour brazing, welding and soldering pipes for a local contractor. When she becomes a full journeyman this summer, she will make more than $50 per hour.
Nick Winters, 27, was a software salesman who started to view himself as replaceable and was interested in a career that “required a human touch.” After speaking with his father-in-law, who was a sheet metal worker, he took union tests for plumbing, elevator construction and electrical work. He passed the electrical exam and got into the union, which offers guaranteed wage increases and puts him on track to one day make more than $100,000 per year.
Even “when I’m in the mud and I have filled up my muck boots with mud and water, at no point have I ever thought, ‘Man I miss the office,’” Winters says.
Check out NRCA’s Careers in Roofing website, which offers resources that highlight the career opportunities available in the roofing industry and provides a recruitment tool for roofing companies.
