Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Employment, Earnings, and Professional Engagement: New Insights from the 2021 National Survey of College Graduates. InfoBrief. NSF 23-307

The number of college graduates in the United States reached nearly 68.6 million in 2021, of which approximately 68 million had ever held a job, with nearly 52 million currently employed and 16 million not employed. Although the number of employed college graduates increased by 1.2 million (2.5%) between 2019 and 2021, the number of nonemployed college graduates increased by 2.5 million (17.9%). This large increase in nonemployment coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and signals important changes in the labor market for college graduates. This InfoBrief provides an overview of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the college-educated workforce, drawing on new data from the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG). In addition to collecting basic information on labor force status and earnings, the NSCG collects detailed information on reasons for nonemployment, access to various job benefits, participation in professional activities, and measures of job satisfaction. The 2021 cycle of the NSCG elicited additional information related to the pandemic, such as pandemic-related reasons for not working, presence of telework arrangements, and pandemic-related salary effects. Some of this information is highlighted below.