Gen Z men with college degrees now have the same unemployment rate as non-grads—a sign that the higher education payoff is dead

• Gen Z is increasingly slamming their degrees as useless, and research indicates there may be some truth when it comes to the job hunt. In fact, the unemployment rate of males ages 22 to 27 is roughly the same, whether or not they hold a degree. It comes as employers drop degree requirements and young men ditch corporate jobs for skilled trades.

Gen Z is struggling to break into the entry-level job market—but young male college graduates may be hurting the most.

Data from the Federal Reserve indicates that the unemployment rate among recent college graduates is on the rise, at about 5.6%.

Although it remains lower than the 7.8% rate among all young workers between 22 and 27 years old, men with a college degree now have roughly the same unemployment rate as young men who didn’t go to college, according to an analysis of U.S. Current Population Survey data by the Financial Times. 

In comparison, around 2010, non-college-educated men experienced unemployment rates over 15%, whereas the rate among college graduates was closer to 7%.

It’s a stark sign that the job market boost once promised by a degree has all but vanished and that employers care less about credentials than they once did when hiring for entry-level roles.

Young men and women are facing diverging employment rates 

While 7% of college-educated American men are unemployed, for women this drops to around 4%, according to the Financial Times analysis. Growth in fields like health care—which women are more likely to pursue—is in part to credit.

Over the next decade, health care occupations are projected to grow much faster than the rate for all occupations, translating to about 1.9 million openings each year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Moreover, the industry is largely considered to be among the safest from any sort of cyclical changes: “Health care is a classic recession-resistant industry because medical care is always in demand,” Priya Rathod, career expert at Indeed, previously told Fortune.

Men and women also tend to differ on whether they’d be willing to accept a job that doesn’t quite fit into their career goals. 

“Women tend to be more flexible in accepting job offers, even if they’re not perfectly aligned with their career goals or are part-time or they are overqualified for,” Lewis Maleh, CEO of the global recruitment agency Bentley Lewis, previously told Fortune.

“Men, on the other hand, often hold out for roles that align more closely with their ideal career path or offer what they perceive as adequate compensation and status.”

Gen Z men are skipping college—and turning to the skilled trade industry

Many Gen Zers have learned the hard way about the challenges of today’s job market. In fact, some 11% of all young people are considered NEET—meaning not in employment, education, or training. And while there are a myriad of reasons why they might have lost interest in work or education, for those who are college-educated, the struggles often come down to feeling hopeless after months—or years—on the job search. Young men in particular are especially seen as falling into this category of NEET.

But some young people have seen the writing on the wall and decided to change paths. The overall share of young college students has declined by about 1.2 million between 2011 and 2022, according to Pew Research Center analysis. But this decline has a stark gender divide, with there being about 1 million fewer men and about 200,000 fewer women students.

Part of this shift may be credited to the rise in skilled trade career paths, which tend to be male-dominated. Enrollment at two-year vocational public schools has increased by about 20% since 2020, a net increase of over 850,000 students, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

It’s a trend that even billionaires have suggested will be a growing part of the future. Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of KIND bars and the newest judge on Shark Tank, says that vocational careers, like being a carpenter or mechanic, are “huge opportunities that pay really, really well.”

“Vocational training and learning how to be a carpenter or a mechanic or any of those jobs is a huge field with huge opportunities that pays really, really well,” Lubetzky told Fortune in 2025.

“For those people that have great ideas or great opportunities and don’t want to go to college, I don’t think college is an end-all, be-all or required thing.”

A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on July 22, 2025.

More on education:

• Meet the Gen Z college students who turned Excel into a competitive esport—they’re competing in spreadsheet challenges and it’s helping them land jobs
• 40% of Stanford undergrads receive disability accommodations—but it’s become a college-wide phenomenon as Gen Z try to succeed in the current climate
• American schools weren’t broken until Silicon Valley used a lie to convince them they were—now reading and math scores are plummeting

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com