2027 Information Technology Degree Underemployment Report: Which Graduates Are Most Likely to Work Below Their Education Level
Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist
Many Information Technology graduates are not choosing between "employed" and "unemployed"; they are choosing between degree-level IT work and jobs that do not fully use their education. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has recently placed overall underemployment among recent college graduates near 40%, while BLS data shows computer and IT roles pay a much higher median wage than the national median.
This guide is for IT students, recent graduates, and career changers who want to understand risk, compare role types, close skill gaps, and avoid getting stuck in low-credential work.
Key Things to Know About Underemployment in Information Technology Industry
- Information Technology underemployment is most common among graduates who leave school with general coursework but little evidence of hands-on ability in cloud, networking, cybersecurity, databases, scripting, or systems administration.
- BLS reported a $105,990 median annual wage for computer and IT occupations in May 2024, so moving from a low-credential job into a true degree-level IT role can materially change early repayment power and career options.
- The strongest protection against overqualification is not the degree alone; it is a combination of internships, employer-aligned projects, certifications, technical interviews, and a resume that maps coursework to real job requirements.
- How likely is it for Information Technology graduates to become underemployed?
- Is the college curricula for Information Technology keeping up with employer expectations?
How likely is it for Information Technology graduates to become underemployed?
Information Technology graduates have a meaningful but manageable underemployment risk. The risk is lower for graduates who can prove specific technical capability and higher for those whose experience is limited to broad classroom exposure, basic help desk familiarity, or unrelated part-time work.
The most useful way to think about underemployment is educational mismatch: a graduate holds a bachelor's degree but works in a job that typically does not require one. In IT, this can include retail electronics sales, generic customer support, data entry, warehouse technology support, or low-level help desk roles with no technical escalation path.
Recent Federal Reserve Bank of New York labor market dashboards show that underemployment remains a common outcome for recent college graduates overall, hovering around the 40% range. For IT students, the practical takeaway is not that the degree is weak; it is that the entry-level market screens heavily for applied skills, not just completed credits.
The table below shows how underemployment risk tends to vary across common Information Technology graduate profiles. It is not a prediction for any individual graduate, but it can help students identify which choices raise or lower their risk:
| Graduate profile | Typical underemployment risk | Why this profile lands differently in the IT market |
| IT graduate with internship, GitHub or lab portfolio, and targeted certification | Lower | Employers can see evidence of job-ready skills, reducing the need to "take a chance" on an untested applicant. |
| IT graduate with strong coursework but no practical projects | Moderate | The degree signals foundation, but the candidate may lose to applicants who can demonstrate production-style work. |
| IT graduate applying broadly to any technology-adjacent job | Higher | Unfocused applications often lead to support, sales, or operations jobs that use only part of the degree. |
| IT graduate in a weak local market with limited remote-readiness | Higher | Local hiring volume, employer mix, and competition can push graduates into low-credential roles unless they widen the search. |
For most students, the key decision is whether to treat graduation as the start of career preparation or as the final credential. The students who prepare before graduation usually have more leverage when deciding whether to accept a fallback role.
Is the college curricula for Information Technology keeping up with employer expectations?
Many Information Technology programs cover important foundations, but curricula do not always move as quickly as employer tooling. A course catalog may include networking, databases, systems analysis, and programming, while job descriptions may ask for cloud platforms, ticketing systems, identity management, endpoint security, Linux, scripting, container basics, and documentation habits.
This mismatch matters because entry-level IT hiring has become more skills-based. Employers increasingly want evidence that a graduate can troubleshoot, automate, secure, deploy, document, and communicate in real work settings. AI tools also reduce the value of purely routine technical tasks, making applied judgment and systems thinking more important.
The table below summarizes common curriculum gaps and why each one can affect degree-level hiring. Use it to audit whether a program's courses, labs, electives, and capstone projects match the roles students actually want:
| Employer expectation | Where some IT curricula fall short | Underemployment risk if missing |
| Cloud fundamentals | Cloud may be mentioned conceptually but not practiced through AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud labs. | Graduates may be screened out of cloud support, systems, and junior DevOps-adjacent roles. |
| Security operations basics | Security courses may focus on theory without SIEM, identity, incident response, or vulnerability workflow exposure. | Graduates may struggle to enter cybersecurity analyst pipelines. |
| Scripting and automation | Programs may require programming but not applied PowerShell, Python, Bash, or automation for IT operations. | Graduates may be limited to manual support tasks. |
| Workplace tools and processes | Students may not use Jira, ServiceNow-style ticketing, version control, documentation, or ITIL concepts. | Employers may perceive the candidate as needing too much onboarding. |
| Portfolio-ready projects | Capstones may be graded academically but not packaged for hiring managers. | Graduates have less evidence when competing against candidates with internships. |
Students comparing program quality should look beyond whether a school offers an IT major and ask whether the curriculum produces employer-visible proof.
This same ROI mindset applies across graduate and online education; Research.com's guide to 1 year PhD programs online, for example, illustrates why students should evaluate time, credential value, and career fit together rather than choosing by speed alone.
Information Technology generally compares favorably with many majors because the economy still needs technical workers, but it is not immune to underemployment. The difference is that IT underemployment is often less about the major being unrelated to the labor market and more about whether the graduate has the right specialization and practical evidence.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York major-level labor market data consistently shows wide variation across fields. Technical majors such as computer science and engineering tend to have lower underemployment than many humanities, arts, and broad social science fields, while business-adjacent technology majors can land in the middle depending on skill depth.
The table below gives a decision-focused comparison rather than a ranking. It helps readers understand why IT can be a strong major while still requiring deliberate career preparation:
| Major category | Typical underemployment pattern | What it means for an IT student |
| Computer science and computer engineering | Often lower when graduates have strong coding, systems, and project experience. | IT students competing for technical roles may need stronger portfolios to match this signal. |
| Information Technology and information systems | Moderate risk, with outcomes depending heavily on specialization, internships, and certifications. | The degree can work well when paired with cloud, security, networking, data, or systems skills. |
| Business, communications, and general studies | Often more dependent on internships, employer networks, and industry-specific experience. | IT graduates may have an advantage if they can prove technical execution, not just technology interest. |
| Arts and broad humanities fields | Higher mismatch risk in many early-career labor market datasets. | IT students should not be complacent, but their technical pathway usually offers clearer role alignment. |
The most important comparison is not "IT versus every other major." It is "general IT graduate versus job-ready IT graduate." Within the same major, a student with a security lab, internship, and CompTIA Security+ may face a different market than a student with only classroom grades.
Taking a low-credential role can affect career growth, but the impact depends on duration, job content, and how the graduate uses the time. A short stay in a support role with strong technical exposure can help. A long stay in a role unrelated to infrastructure, software, data, or security can weaken the graduate's signal for degree-level openings.
The main risk is experience drift. After a year or two, employers may evaluate the candidate less as a recent IT graduate and more as a customer service, retail, or basic support worker. That can make it harder to compete for analyst, administrator, or associate engineer roles unless the candidate has continued building relevant skills outside the job.
Graduates who accept low-credential work should protect their long-term trajectory by creating an exit strategy immediately. A practical plan can include:
- Choose a target role, such as junior systems administrator, cybersecurity analyst, cloud support associate, network technician, data analyst, or application support analyst.
- Identify 20 job postings for that role and list the repeated tools, certifications, and responsibilities.
- Build one portfolio project every month that demonstrates those requirements in a realistic scenario.
- Earn one targeted certification only if it appears repeatedly in postings for the role and region.
- Update the resume every 30 days to emphasize technical outcomes instead of generic customer service duties.
- Set a deadline for internal promotion or external applications so the fallback role does not become the default career path.
The broader lesson applies to any education investment: credentials work best when they are tied to a clear labor-market outcome. Students comparing IT with other professional fields can see similar ROI considerations in guides such as Research.com's overview of affordable online MFT programs, where career pathway, licensure fit, and cost all affect value.
The salary gap can be substantial because degree-level IT roles sit in a higher-paying occupational group than many fallback jobs. BLS reported a median annual wage of $105,990 for computer and IT occupations in May 2024, compared with a much lower median for all occupations. That does not mean every new graduate earns that amount, but it shows why role fit matters.
Underemployment affects more than take-home pay. Lower early earnings can delay student loan repayment, reduce emergency savings, limit geographic mobility, and make it harder to pay for certifications, relocation, or graduate study. The financial risk is greatest for borrowers who took on debt expecting to enter a degree-level IT wage band quickly.
The table below compares common degree-level IT roles with low-credential fallback jobs. The figures use BLS-style occupational wage categories and should be treated as labor-market benchmarks, not salary guarantees.
| Role type | Examples | Typical education utilization | Salary implication |
| Degree-level IT role | Information security analyst, systems analyst, database administrator, network administrator, software developer, cloud support associate | High; the role uses technical coursework, applied projects, and problem-solving skills. | More likely to align with the BLS computer and IT occupational wage band. |
| Gateway technical support role | Tier 1 or Tier 2 help desk, desktop support, NOC technician, application support | Moderate; value depends on escalation, tooling, and advancement path. | Can start lower but may lead to degree-level roles if the experience is technical. |
| Low-credential technology-adjacent role | Retail tech sales, call center support, basic device setup, data entry | Low; the degree may not be required for the core work. | Often weaker for loan repayment and slower for technical career growth. |
When comparing offers, graduates should look beyond the first salary number. A $5,000 lower offer in a role with cloud administration, security operations, or network exposure may be better than a slightly higher customer support job with no technical ladder.
Information Technology graduates are usually pushed into low-credential roles by a combination of skill gaps, market timing, weak job-search strategy, and unclear specialization. The degree opens the door, but employers often expect proof that the graduate can function in a production environment.
These barriers are the most common causes of IT underemployment, and each one has a practical way to reduce the risk:
- No internship or co-op: Employers often use internships as evidence that a graduate can work on a technical team, follow documentation, and handle real tickets or projects.
- Overly broad resume: A resume that says "IT graduate seeking technology role" is weaker than one aimed at systems support, cybersecurity, cloud, data, networking, or application support.
- Missing hands-on proof: Courses alone may not show that the graduate can configure a network, secure an endpoint, write a script, query a database, or troubleshoot a live issue.
- Weak local labor market: Some regions have fewer junior IT openings, so graduates may need to target hybrid, remote, government, healthcare, finance, education, or managed service provider roles.
- AI and automation pressure: Routine entry-level tasks are easier to automate, so candidates need to show judgment, documentation, security awareness, and the ability to work across systems.
- Late job-search start: Waiting until after graduation to build a portfolio, contact alumni, and apply to roles can leave graduates competing from behind.
The red flag is not a single weakness; many students recover from one gap. The highest risk appears when a graduate has no internship, no specialization, no portfolio, no certification, and no targeted application strategy at the same time.
A strong Information Technology resume should translate academic experience into employer language. Hiring managers and applicant tracking systems respond better to tools, outcomes, environments, and responsibilities than to a generic list of courses.
The best resume strategy is to pick one target role family and tailor the document around it. A cybersecurity analyst resume should not look the same as a cloud support, systems administrator, data analyst, or network technician resume.
Use this sequence to position a resume for degree-level IT roles:
- Start with a target title and role family, such as junior systems administrator, SOC analyst, cloud support associate, data analyst, network technician, or application support analyst.
- Rewrite the summary around tools and outcomes, not personal traits. For example, emphasize Linux, Windows Server, Active Directory, Python, SQL, AWS, Azure, Cisco, SIEM, or ServiceNow when relevant.
- Create a technical skills section grouped by category, such as operating systems, cloud, networking, security, scripting, databases, and ticketing tools.
- Convert coursework into projects with business context. Instead of "completed database class," describe the schema, queries, performance goal, and reporting use case.
- Use action bullets that show troubleshooting, configuration, documentation, automation, monitoring, access control, or user impact.
- Move unrelated work experience lower and rewrite it to highlight technical support, process improvement, communication, and escalation skills.
- Include certifications in progress only when the exam date is scheduled or the credential is highly relevant to the target role.
- Mirror important keywords from job descriptions honestly, but never claim tools or responsibilities you cannot discuss in an interview.
One common mistake is applying to hundreds of jobs with the same resume. A smaller number of targeted applications, paired with alumni outreach and portfolio links, usually gives IT graduates a stronger chance of reaching interviews.
Certifications can help Information Technology graduates qualify for degree-level roles when they validate skills employers already request. They are most useful when paired with projects or experience; they are less useful when collected randomly without a target job.
BLS projections continue to show strong long-term demand for computer and IT workers, but that demand is uneven by specialization. Security, cloud, data, and software-adjacent roles often reward targeted credentials more than generic technology familiarity.
The table below summarizes certifications that can improve positioning for common IT pathways. Students should check local job postings before paying for any exam because employer preferences vary by region and industry:
| Certification | Best-fit role direction | Why it can reduce underemployment risk |
| CompTIA A+ | Desktop support, help desk, technical support | Validates basic hardware, software, troubleshooting, and support knowledge for gateway technical roles. |
| CompTIA Network+ | Network technician, systems support, NOC roles | Shows foundational networking knowledge that many general IT graduates need to prove. |
| CompTIA Security+ | SOC analyst, security support, government contractor pipelines | Often appears in entry-level cybersecurity postings and can help with security-focused screening. |
| Microsoft Azure Fundamentals or Azure Administrator | Cloud support, systems administration, Microsoft environments | Signals familiarity with cloud services, identity, and enterprise Microsoft infrastructure. |
| AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner or Solutions Architect Associate | Cloud support, cloud operations, junior cloud roles | Helps graduates show cloud vocabulary and platform familiarity beyond classroom theory. |
| Cisco CCNA | Network technician, NOC analyst, junior network administrator | Provides a stronger networking signal for roles that require routing, switching, and troubleshooting knowledge. |
| Google Data Analytics or Microsoft Power BI certification | Data analyst, reporting analyst, business technology roles | Can help IT graduates pivot toward analytics when paired with SQL and portfolio dashboards. |
A certification is usually faster and cheaper than a master's degree for closing a specific entry-level skill gap. A master's may make more sense later for leadership, cybersecurity depth, data science, research, or specialized architecture roles.
Students comparing credential costs across disciplines may find a similar affordability lens in Research.com's guide to the cheapest online master's in human resources, even though the career field is different.
The best time to reduce underemployment risk is before graduation. Students who wait until the final semester often discover that entry-level IT postings expect experience, tools, and projects they could have started building much earlier.
A practical plan should combine coursework, employer research, projects, credentials, and networking. The following steps help students turn an Information Technology degree into a degree-level employment strategy:
- Pick a role track by the sophomore or junior year, such as cybersecurity, cloud, networking, systems administration, data analytics, software support, or business systems analysis.
- Audit 30 job postings in that track and record the tools, certifications, responsibilities, and soft skills that appear repeatedly.
- Choose electives that match the role track rather than selecting only the easiest or most convenient classes.
- Build a portfolio with three to five substantial projects, such as a secured home lab, cloud deployment, SQL dashboard, network design, incident response walkthrough, or automation script.
- Apply for internships, co-ops, campus IT jobs, managed service provider roles, and part-time technical jobs before senior year.
- Use faculty, alumni, LinkedIn, career fairs, and local technology groups to get referrals before applications enter crowded online systems.
- Earn one targeted certification only after confirming that it appears in real postings for the desired role.
- Practice technical interviews by explaining projects, trade-offs, mistakes, troubleshooting steps, and security implications in plain language.
- Track applications and interviews weekly so weak response rates can be fixed with better targeting, stronger resume language, or more networking.
- Evaluate first job offers by technical exposure, mentorship, promotion path, and skill growth, not salary alone.
Students should also be honest about fit. If they enjoy technology but not troubleshooting, systems, security, programming, data, or infrastructure work, a technology-adjacent business role may be better than forcing a technical path.
For broader education comparisons, Research.com's guide to an online digital photography degree is a reminder that degree value depends on matching training, portfolio expectations, and the labor market for the intended career.
Some Information Technology graduates use low-credential roles as short bridges into better jobs, while others remain stuck because the role does not build marketable experience. The difference is whether the job creates a path toward systems, cloud, security, data, networking, or business technology responsibilities.
A help desk role, for example, is not automatically underemployment. It can be a legitimate gateway if the job includes escalation, troubleshooting, documentation, endpoint management, identity access work, networking exposure, or a clear path to junior administrator responsibilities. It is riskier when the work is mostly password resets, call scripts, hardware swaps, or customer service metrics with no technical progression.
Before accepting a fallback job, graduates should evaluate whether it has an exit ramp. These questions help separate useful entry-level experience from low-credential traps:
- Will the role expose me to tools used in degree-level IT jobs, such as Active Directory, Entra ID, Linux, cloud consoles, networking equipment, SIEM platforms, databases, or ticketing systems?
- Does the employer promote support staff into systems, security, network, database, cloud, or analyst positions?
- Will I be allowed to document technical projects, automate tasks, or contribute to internal improvements that can be described on a resume?
- Is there a realistic timeline for advancement, or is the role designed as a high-turnover support position?
- Can I continue applying for degree-level roles while working, or will the schedule make upskilling and interviewing difficult?
A low-credential role is more defensible when it pays bills, provides technical exposure, and has a 6- to 12-month advancement plan. It becomes dangerous when it consumes time without building evidence for the next role.
Other Things You Should Know About Information Technology
Yes. Underemployment is not the same as unemployment. An IT graduate can work full time and still be underemployed if the job does not typically require a degree or does not use college-level technical skills.
Not always. Help desk work can be a strong first step if it includes troubleshooting, escalation, systems exposure, documentation, and advancement opportunities. It is riskier when it is mostly scripted customer service with no technical growth path.
Relocation can help when the local market has few junior IT openings, but it is not the only option. Graduates should also consider remote roles, hybrid jobs in nearby metro areas, government contractors, healthcare systems, universities, banks, and managed service providers.
No. A master's degree can help for specialized or senior tracks, but it may not solve a missing experience problem. For many recent graduates, an internship, portfolio, targeted certification, or technical support role with a clear promotion path may produce a faster return.
- Lower socio-economic background graduates ‘overlooked’ in hiring https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/lower-socio-economic-background-graduates-overlooked-in-hiring/
- Underemployed - Diversified Trust https://diversifiedtrust.com/blog/underemployed/
- Understanding the numbers: degree-level graduates who go on to do industry training https://www.universitiesnz.ac.nz/latest-news-and-publications/understanding-numbers-degree-level-graduates-who-go-do-industry
- The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates - Part 2: Labor Market Tradeoffs https://encoura.org/resources/wake-up-call/the-labor-market-for-recent-college-graduates-part-2-labor-market-tradeoffs/
- Annual Grad Report - ZipRecruiter Economic Research https://www.ziprecruiter-research.org/annual-grad-report
- This is the real reason new graduates can’t get hired https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20151118-this-is-the-real-reason-new-graduates-cant-get-hired
