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October 12, 2006
Where unemployment is really low
The national jobless rate is a little over 4.5 percent. Yet there's one labor market where the unemployment rate is approaching 1 percent, says N.C. State University economist Mike Walden.
"It’s good news for those people in college, because the market is the college graduate market. The unemployment rate for college graduates … is now at 1.8 percent. That’s the lowest in over five years," says Dr. Walden, a North Carolina Cooperative Extension specialist. "In fact, half of the new jobs filled this year by people over age 25 were filled by people with a college degree, even though folks with a college degree make up only one third of the workforce.
"Obviously this is the result of a changing workforce, the emphasis on skilled jobs," he adds. "And of course people with college degrees fit that bill.
"So the strong demand for college-educated workers is creating both a low unemployment rate as well as good salaries for those workers."
Posted by deeshore at October 12, 2006 04:06 PM