A better labor market is benefiting more Americans, including those with less education. September’s unemployment rate fell from 6.1% to 5.9%, slipping under 6% for the first time since 2008. Those with only, or less than, a high school diploma saw even sharper declines.
Unemployment sunk from 6.2% to 5.3% for high school graduates and from 9.1% to 8.4% for those without a high school diploma. Much of the improvement, in September and over the past year, is due to the unemployed ending job searches because they got discouraged, retired or returned to school.
But a closer look shows that employment has risen or steadied for less educated workers over the past year after falling or swinging up and down since the jobs recovery began in early 2010.
Much of the economy’s overall payroll growth has been in low-wage restaurant, retail and health care jobs. A large pool of unemployed workers let businesses fill many of them with college graduates in recent years, says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.