[inkcil]

The point is that college-level job opportunities commensurate with the cost of living required to maintain a middle class lifestyle are shrinking. The most academic graduates (ie Ivy leaguers) are now looking for jobs that they would have scoffed at 20 years ago. The jock graduate can't compete with them. Likewise the lower paying entry level hourly jobs that paid college grads $20/hour are going overseas in a globalized job market.

In addition, the majority of college grads with employment are from the boomer generation. Also, many gen x and millenials with college degrees are working jobs that don't require degrees because of the shrinkage in middle class jobs. And there are many who are underemployed - working less than full time. So again, the world has changed, the value of a college education has dropped, earnings have not kept up with inflation, and if you are not connected or very very smart at what you do the day you graduate, good luck finding a job that will do anything other than get you paycheck to paycheck living.

To further belabor the point, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently released a study (volume 20, #1 in current issues: economics and finance) noting that the underemployment rate for recent college grads (ages 22-27) was 44% as of 2012. This is up from 34% in 2001.