Recent graduates ages 22 to 27, 2026:Q2
Underemployment
42%
Unemployment
5.6%
See the data
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Underemployment | 42% |
| Unemployment | 5.6% |
Registration week rewards the student who already knows which skill a target role keeps asking for. It punishes the student who picks from the title and the time slot. A course will not hand you a job. A course can close one gap that postings keep repeating, if you choose it on purpose.
NACE’s Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update says employers want students to connect coursework to the work, and that skills-based hiring is something nearly 70% of their respondents now say they use. The practical reading is simple. A course title on a transcript is weak evidence. A course in which you produced a thing the posting asked for is stronger. When you pick classes, you are picking which evidence you will have in four months.
The New York Fed’s page on recent graduates shows the stakes of that choice. For 2026:Q2, underemployment for graduates ages 22 to 27 was 42%, meaning work in jobs that typically do not require a degree, and unemployment for that group was about 5.6%. The Fed also publishes outcomes by major, and those figures move. Do not treat a single major’s column as an order to switch fields in week ten. Do treat the next course as a chance to hold a skill a real posting lists.
CareerOneStop’s resume guidance says to scan many postings for the requirements that repeat, then use the exact term when you have the skill. Registration is the moment you can still go get the term honestly, by taking the class that teaches it, instead of pasting the word onto a resume in March.
A two-hour method before you register
Collect five current postings for one role you want in the next year. Not fifty. Five that you would apply to if you were eligible today. Copy every required skill and tool into a list. Count repeats. The skill that shows up four times is the registration target. The skill that shows up once can wait.
Cross off skills you can already prove with a project or a job. What remains is the gap list. Now open the catalog. For each gap, find a course whose description or syllabus mentions the skill in a way you could quote. If the title is attractive and the syllabus never mentions the skill, it does not close the gap. If two courses mention it, pick the one with a graded artifact you can show: a program, a memo, a design, a data set, a lesson you taught. A course that ends in a multiple-choice final gives you a grade. A course that ends in an artifact gives you a resume line.
Check the prerequisites and the term it is offered. A perfect course you cannot enter is not a plan. Write the alternate course next to it so a closed section does not send you back to browsing.
Then check the load. If the gap-closing course is heavy, drop an elective that does not touch the list. This term you are buying one piece of evidence. NACE’s point about tying coursework to work fails when the only course you can describe is unrelated to the posting you keep saving.
Talk to one person who has the artifact
Email the instructor, or a student who took the class, and ask what the final work product is and whether students may keep a copy. Get a yes on the artifact before you register. By week twelve the syllabus may say the data cannot leave the room. Ask how much weekly work the last term actually took. Catalog hours are a rumor. A student who finished the class has a number.
If you are early in the major, pair the gap course with the next required course in the sequence so you do not strand a prerequisite. The role plan and the degree plan have to fit in the same semester. Write both on one page: required courses, the one gap course, and the artifact you expect to hold in December or May.
Revisit the five postings halfway through the term. If they have shifted to a different tool, you still finish the artifact. You do not drop the class in week eight because a posting changed. You note the new tool for next registration. Chasing every posting in real time is how students collect withdrawals.
Example
Example. You want a junior analyst internship. Four of the five postings say SQL, and one says a dashboard tool. You have a spreadsheet project and no SQL. The catalog has a database course with a project and a flashier elective with a guest speaker and no project. You register for the database course, confirm with a student that last term’s project was a set of queries you could describe, and you keep the dashboard tool for a later term or a weekend tutorial you can attach to the SQL project. You do not add a third course “to explore.” The artifact is the point.
How Flightpath helps
Flightpath builds a plan by semester from your year, major, goals, and the gaps on a posting you pin. The plan is there so you register against a gap on a posting you pinned. It will not promise that a course produces a job offer, and it does not walk a live catalog course by course. You still register yourself. A role you are not eligible for is labeled and is not ranked above one you can take, so the plan is not built around a job you cannot accept. You approve anything before it is sent.