(AP)
TAMPA – For the Class of 2013 graduating Monday, it will no doubt be an exciting day. But according to new statistics, they may have a tough few years ahead.
Thousands of local high school seniors will walk across the stage on Monday to get their high school diploma – many now headed to college.
However, many of those graduates are likely to face a tough and tight job market ahead of them. A report just out by the Economic Policy Institute shows graduating in a bad economy has long lasting economic consequences.
Here's the latest:
The unemployment rate for recent college graduates is about 8.8 percent. That's actually down from 10 percent - so that's some good news.
But get this: about 30 percent of recent high school grads will spend the next year looking for a job. That's up from 17 percent in previous years.
So experts say getting a college degree still greatly improves a person's job prospects, but it still is a struggle right now to find a job.
The good news is that the overall unemployment rate has been slowly dropping.
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