2027 Education Degree Underemployment Report: Which Graduates Are Most Likely to Work Below Their Education Level
Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist
Education graduates often face a sharper choice than many majors: accept a low-credential school support job quickly or compete for licensed, degree-level roles that better match their training. The New York Fed's 2024 major-level data shows education majors generally have lower underemployment than many fields, but risk still rises for graduates without licensure, practicum experience, or specialization. This guide is for students, recent graduates, and career changers who want to understand where mismatches happen, what they cost, and how to build a stronger path into teaching, instructional design, training, student services, or education administration.
Key Things to Know About Underemployment in Education Industry
- Education majors tend to have a lower underemployment risk than broad generalist majors because many jobs are tied to state licensure, but New York Fed 2024 major data still places several education fields in roughly the mid-teens to low-20% underemployment range.
- The biggest risk is not usually the degree itself; it is graduating without a state-aligned license, supervised fieldwork, classroom technology skills, or a clear target role beyond "working with students."
- The financial penalty can be large: BLS May 2024 wage data shows teacher assistants had a median wage of $35,240, while kindergarten and elementary school teachers had a median wage of $63,680.
- How likely is it for Education graduates to become underemployed?
- Is the college curricula for Education keeping up with employer expectations?
How likely is it for Education graduates to become underemployed?
Education graduates are not all exposed to the same level of underemployment. A student who completes a state-approved teacher preparation program, passes required exams, and finishes student teaching usually has a clearer path to degree-level work than someone with a broad education studies degree and no license.
New York Fed 2024 major-level data places several education-related majors, including elementary, special, and early childhood education, below the high underemployment levels seen in many non-licensure majors. That does not mean the risk is low for everyone; it means the risk is concentrated among graduates who are missing the credential or practical experience employers require.
The table below summarizes where Education graduates commonly land and how likely those roles are to represent a true degree match. Use it to distinguish legitimate entry points from fallback jobs that may not use the full value of a bachelor's degree.
| Education graduate pathway | Typical first role | Degree-level match | Underemployment risk |
| Licensed teacher preparation graduate | Elementary, secondary, special education, or early childhood teacher | Strong when license and grade-band endorsement match the job | Lower, but affected by state vacancies and subject area demand |
| Education studies graduate without licensure | Paraprofessional, tutor, childcare worker, after-school coordinator | Often partial or weak | Higher unless the role leads to licensure, instructional design, or student services |
| Specialized graduate with ESL, special education, STEM, or bilingual preparation | Teacher in shortage area, intervention specialist, learning support teacher | Strong | Generally lower because specialization narrows employer fit |
| Graduate aiming outside K-12 | Training assistant, academic advisor assistant, curriculum support associate | Mixed | Depends heavily on software, assessment, advising, and data skills |
The practical takeaway is simple: Education is less risky when the degree is connected to a regulated role, shortage area, or measurable skill set. It becomes riskier when the program is broad, the job search is local-only, or the graduate waits until after commencement to pursue licensing requirements.
Is the college curricula for Education keeping up with employer expectations?
Education curricula are strongest when they combine theory, supervised practice, classroom management, assessment design, learning technology, and state licensure preparation. They fall short when programs emphasize broad educational foundations but do not help students prove they can manage a classroom, interpret student data, support diverse learners, or use current instructional tools.
Employer expectations are also changing. Schools still value pedagogy and subject knowledge, but many now expect new educators to work with learning management systems, digital assessment platforms, AI-assisted planning tools, individualized education plans, and family communication systems from the first year. Students comparing licensure-heavy pathways, including fields as different as teacher preparation and PharmD online programs, should notice the same principle: the curriculum must align with the credential and supervised practice requirements of the occupation.
The table below shows common gaps between Education coursework and employer expectations. These gaps matter because they often determine whether a graduate is hired into a degree-level position or pushed toward support roles.
| Curriculum area | What employers often expect | Why the gap can lead to underemployment |
| Classroom management | Evidence of handling real classroom routines, behavior plans, and parent communication | Graduates with only theory may lose out to candidates with stronger student-teaching evaluations |
| Instructional technology | Comfort with LMS platforms, digital gradebooks, assessment tools, and accessibility features | Technology gaps can make graduates look less ready for modern school environments |
| Assessment and data literacy | Ability to interpret learning data and adjust instruction | Without data skills, graduates may be limited to assistant or tutoring roles |
| Special populations | Preparation for IEPs, 504 plans, multilingual learners, and differentiated instruction | Lack of specialization reduces competitiveness in high-need hiring areas |
| Career readiness outside K-12 | Portfolio work in curriculum design, adult learning, or training development | Graduates who want non-classroom jobs may lack proof of job-specific skills |
A strong Education program should help students graduate with a license pathway, documented field hours, a polished teaching portfolio, and role-specific technology skills. If a program cannot show where graduates are placed, how licensure pass rates compare, or which employers recruit from it, students should treat that as a warning sign.
Education graduates often compare favorably with many majors because teaching is a credentialed labor market. A school district hiring for a licensed teacher role cannot simply substitute any bachelor's degree; the candidate usually needs the correct state-approved preparation or alternative certification pathway.
However, comparing Education to other majors requires care because different studies define underemployment differently. The New York Fed's 2024 dashboard tracks whether college graduates work in jobs that typically require a degree, while the 2024 Strada and Burning Glass Institute report measures early-career college-level employment more broadly. Both point to the same decision lesson: majors tied to a specific occupation generally have clearer first-job pathways than broad majors without a credential bridge.
The table below gives a decision-focused comparison rather than a ranking. It shows why Education can be safer than some majors but still risky for students who do not complete role-specific requirements.
| Major category | Typical underemployment pattern | Reason for the pattern | Decision implication |
| Education | Often lower than many broad majors when licensure is completed | Many roles are tied to state credentials and supervised practice | Prioritize state-approved preparation, endorsements, and field placements |
| Humanities and general social sciences | Often higher in early career | Career paths may require translation into specific employer skills | Build internships, writing samples, analytics skills, or career-specific credentials |
| Business generalist programs | Mixed | Large hiring volume, but strong competition for degree-level analyst and management-track roles | Use internships and technical tools to stand out |
| Engineering, nursing, and other licensure-heavy fields | Often lower when graduates pass required exams | Occupational entry is more tightly defined | Verify accreditation, exam pass rates, and clinical or practicum quality |
| Arts and communication fields | Often dependent on portfolio and market location | Degree requirements vary more by employer | Develop a portfolio and target markets with stronger hiring density |
For Education students, the main comparison is not simply "Is Education better than another major?" The better question is whether a specific program leads to a defined occupation, license, endorsement, or portfolio that employers recognize.
Taking a low-credential role can slow career growth if it delays licensure, reduces access to professional evaluations, or keeps a graduate outside the experience track that districts and education employers reward. This is especially important in teaching, where salary schedules, tenure timelines, and advancement opportunities often depend on years of recognized professional service.
There are also technology-related pressures. AI tools can now assist with lesson planning, grading support, content generation, tutoring prompts, and administrative communication. These tools do not replace the judgment of licensed educators, but they can reduce demand for some routine entry-level support tasks. Graduates who remain in low-skill assistant roles without building instructional, data, or student-support expertise may become easier to overlook.
The career impact usually depends on whether the role builds transferable evidence. Education graduates should evaluate low-credential offers using these questions:
- Will this role count toward certification, residency, supervised hours, or district hiring preference?
- Will I receive documented evaluations or references from licensed professionals?
- Will I practice lesson delivery, assessment, behavior support, or intervention planning?
- Will the schedule leave time for exams, applications, interviews, or graduate coursework?
- Will the role move me closer to a specific job title within 6 to 18 months?
If the answer is mostly no, the job may be a short-term income solution rather than a career-building move. That can still be necessary, but graduates should avoid presenting it to themselves as a substitute for licensure or degree-level experience.
The salary gap between degree-level Education jobs and low-credential roles is one of the clearest reasons underemployment matters. BLS May 2024 wage data shows that many support roles pay far below licensed teaching or education specialist positions, which can affect rent affordability, student loan repayment, retirement contributions, and the ability to fund additional credentials.
The table below compares representative Education-aligned roles. These are national medians, so actual pay varies by state, district, union agreement, school type, experience, and contract length.
| Role type | Representative occupation | BLS May 2024 median wage | What the gap means |
| Degree-level teaching role | Kindergarten and elementary school teacher | $63,680 | Typically requires state licensure and is more likely to place graduates on a professional salary schedule |
| Low-credential support role | Teacher assistant | $35,240 | Useful classroom exposure, but the median is $28,440 below the elementary teacher median |
| Degree-level specialist role | Instructional coordinator | $74,720 | Often requires teaching experience or a graduate credential, but can offer stronger advancement |
| Low-credential early education role | Childcare worker | $32,050 | May align with child development interests but often does not fully use a bachelor's degree |
| Degree-level workforce learning role | Training and development specialist | $65,850 | Can fit Education graduates who build adult learning, software, and evaluation skills |
The salary gap also changes how quickly additional education pays off. A master's degree can be valuable for instructional leadership, counseling, administration, or specialized education roles, but a shorter certification may have a faster return if the immediate problem is missing licensure, ESL preparation, special education eligibility, or education technology proof. Graduates exploring education-adjacent data and administration careers can also compare pathways such as master in health information management salary outcomes before committing to a longer graduate program.
Education graduates are often pushed into low-credential roles by a mix of credential, timing, geography, and job-search barriers. The most common problem is not a lack of interest in education; it is a mismatch between what the graduate can legally or practically do and what employers are hiring for.
The table below identifies the barriers most likely to create that mismatch. Understanding the barrier helps students choose the right fix instead of applying randomly to more jobs.
| Barrier | How it pushes graduates into low-credential work | Best way to interpret it |
| Incomplete licensure | Districts may screen out candidates who have not passed exams or completed state paperwork | This is a credential problem, not necessarily a degree-value problem |
| Weak field experience | Graduates without strong practicum references may lose to candidates with better classroom evidence | Experience quality matters more than the number of education courses completed |
| Geographic mismatch | Some districts have openings while others are saturated or shrinking | Local labor markets can be more important than national averages |
| No specialization | General education applicants may face more competition than special education, bilingual, ESL, or STEM candidates | Endorsements can reduce risk more quickly than another broad degree |
| Unclear non-teaching target | Employers outside schools may not know how to map an Education degree to their openings | Graduates need a skills-based resume and portfolio for training, advising, or instructional design |
Some graduates respond to barriers by switching fields entirely. That can be reasonable when the target role is clearer, faster, or better aligned with financial needs, but it should be a deliberate choice rather than a panic move. For example, students comparing school-based support work with healthcare training options such as fast track LPN programs online should compare licensure requirements, clinical hours, local hiring demand, and realistic work schedules before changing direction.
Red flags include accepting a permanent aide role without asking about advancement, applying only to one district, ignoring exam deadlines, choosing a non-licensure program without understanding the consequences, and assuming that any school job will automatically become a teaching job. Each of these mistakes can be corrected, but the earlier students identify them, the easier it is to avoid long-term underemployment.
A strong Education resume should make the degree-level match obvious in the first few seconds. Hiring teams and applicant tracking systems look for licensure status, grade band, subject area, field experience, student population experience, and measurable teaching or learning outcomes.
Graduates should build the resume around the role they want, not around every education-related task they have ever performed. Use the following sequence to reposition a resume for licensed teaching, instructional support, training, advising, or curriculum roles:
- Put licensure status near the top, including state, grade band, subject, endorsement, exam status, and expected completion date if pending.
- Replace vague phrases such as "worked with students" with specific evidence such as lesson planning, small-group instruction, behavior support, assessment tracking, IEP support, or family communication.
- Add a field experience section that lists school setting, grade level, student population, cooperating teacher or supervisor context, and instructional responsibilities.
- Use job-posting language ethically by matching real experience to terms such as differentiated instruction, formative assessment, classroom management, LMS, intervention, or curriculum alignment.
- Create a portfolio link or document with lesson plans, assessment samples, reflection notes, classroom technology examples, and student-data interpretation with identifying information removed.
- For non-classroom roles, translate education experience into employer language such as learning design, facilitation, stakeholder communication, program coordination, data reporting, and training evaluation.
Common resume mistakes include leading with a generic objective, hiding certification status, listing coursework without applied evidence, failing to name classroom technologies, and using the same resume for teaching, tutoring, advising, and corporate training roles. Each target role needs a different version because each employer defines "degree-level" differently.
Certifications can reduce underemployment when they solve a specific hiring barrier. They are less useful when they are collected randomly or do not match the graduate's target role, state rules, or employer expectations.
The table below summarizes credentials that can help Education graduates qualify for degree-level work. Requirements vary by state and employer, so students should verify details with licensing boards, districts, universities, or professional associations before paying for a program.
| Credential or certification | Best fit | How it can reduce underemployment risk |
| State teacher license or alternative certification | Graduates seeking public school teaching roles | Turns an education background into legal eligibility for licensed teaching jobs |
| Special education endorsement | Graduates interested in high-need student support roles | Expands access to positions that often require specialized preparation |
| ESL, bilingual, or multilingual learner endorsement | Graduates in diverse districts or language-support roles | Signals readiness to serve multilingual learners and may improve district fit |
| Reading or literacy endorsement | Graduates focused on intervention, elementary education, or literacy support | Strengthens alignment with intervention and instructional support roles |
| Instructional technology or Google Certified Educator | Graduates applying for classroom, edtech, or training roles | Shows practical readiness with digital learning tools |
| ATD or training-related certificate | Graduates moving into corporate training or adult learning | Helps translate education skills into workforce learning language |
A certification usually makes sense when it directly unlocks a role the graduate is already targeting. A master's degree may make more sense for counseling, administration, advanced instructional leadership, speech-language pathways, or higher-level specialist roles that explicitly require graduate study.
Education graduates interested in physical education, coaching, health promotion, or school wellness should also compare curriculum depth and career alignment in related pathways such as the best online kinesiology programs. That comparison can clarify whether an endorsement, second certification, or different degree better supports the target job.
The best strategy is to treat degree-level employment as a project that starts before senior year. Education students who wait until graduation to think about licensure, district hiring cycles, or portfolio evidence are more likely to accept low-credential work simply because it is available first.
Use this action plan to reduce underemployment risk while still in school:
- Map your target role early, including state license, grade band, subject area, endorsement, exam, practicum, and background-check requirements.
- Audit your coursework against current job descriptions from districts, charter schools, early childhood centers, universities, edtech firms, and training departments.
- Prioritize field placements that produce strong supervisor references, real classroom responsibilities, and evidence you can discuss in interviews.
- Choose at least one specialization that matches demand in your preferred region, such as special education, ESL, bilingual education, STEM, literacy, or instructional technology.
- Build a portfolio before graduation with lesson plans, assessment tools, classroom technology samples, reflection notes, and anonymized evidence of student learning support.
- Start the job pipeline before final semester by tracking district calendars, attending school career fairs, joining educator networks, and requesting alumni introductions.
- Apply geographically if possible, because teacher demand varies sharply by state, district, subject, and population growth.
- Evaluate low-credential offers with an exit plan, including how the job will help you complete licensure, gain references, or move into a professional role.
Internships, practicums, and student teaching usually carry more weight than purely academic projects for school-based jobs because they show performance with real learners. Academic projects matter more when applying to instructional design, training, curriculum development, or edtech roles, where employers want samples of learning materials and technology use.
Education can be worth pursuing when students choose a program that leads to a recognized credential, build practical evidence before graduation, and understand the local labor market. It becomes less financially secure when students graduate with a broad degree, no license, no specialization, and no plan for moving beyond low-credential roles.
Some Education graduates use low-credential roles as stepping stones, especially when they are waiting for licensure paperwork, moving between states, or trying to enter a district. The risk is staying too long in a role that does not build the experience needed for a full-time teacher, instructional designer, training specialist, or student services position.
The 2024 Strada and Burning Glass Institute report found that graduates who start out underemployed are much more likely to remain underemployed years later. That finding matters for Education graduates because a paraprofessional or childcare role can be useful for classroom exposure, but it may not count the same as licensed teaching, curriculum design, or professional training experience when employers screen for degree-level positions.
A low-credential role is more likely to be a productive bridge when it has these features:
- It is in the same district, grade band, or student population the graduate wants to serve.
- It includes mentorship from licensed teachers, administrators, counselors, or instructional coaches.
- It gives the graduate documented responsibilities such as small-group instruction, lesson support, progress monitoring, or family communication.
- It has a defined timeline for moving into licensure, a teacher residency, alternative certification, or a full-time professional role.
- It allows time to complete exams, endorsements, portfolio work, or graduate coursework without creating long-term financial strain.
By contrast, a fallback job becomes risky when it is disconnected from the target career, pays too little to support certification progress, or consumes so much time that the graduate stops applying for degree-level roles. The best approach is to accept a support role only with a written exit strategy and a target date for moving up.
Other Things You Should Know About Education
No. Unemployment means a person is not working but is actively looking for work. Underemployment means a graduate is working, but the job does not typically require the level of education, training, or credential the graduate earned.
Not automatically. The bigger issue is whether the program is accredited, state-approved when licensure is needed, connected to supervised fieldwork, and recognized by employers in the state where the student wants to work.
Substitute teaching can help if it builds district contacts, classroom references, and a path toward full-time licensure-based hiring. It is less helpful if it becomes a long-term substitute for completing certification or applying to permanent roles.
Relocation can help when the graduate's local market is saturated or when another district has stronger demand for the graduate's subject, grade band, or endorsement. Before moving, compare certification transfer rules, salary schedules, cost of living, and hiring timelines.
See What Experts Have To Say About Studying Education
Read our interview with Education experts
Nooshan Ashtari
Education Expert
Professor & Book Author
University of Southern California
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- Occupations by Education Level:Job Opportunities by State https://www.careerprofiles.info/occupations-by-education-level.html
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- Are recent college graduates finding good jobs? - The Journalist's Resource https://journalistsresource.org/economics/recent-college-graduates-employment-underemployment/
- The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market
