Youth unrest in Nepal, India and France has intensified as a growing number of young people struggle to secure the university places and graduate jobs they were promised, while in the US about 42% of recent college graduates are working in roles that do not typically require a degree.
The figure for Americans aged 22 to 27 rose slightly to 42% in June, from 41.8% the previous month, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s labour-market tracker. It remains close to the highest levels recorded since the pandemic.
Unemployment among recent graduates reached 5.7%, compared with 4.1% for the workforce as a whole. Graduates have been more likely than the average worker to be unemployed every month since January 2021, reversing a pattern that had prevailed for most of the period since 1990.
The pressure is unevenly distributed between subjects. Census data analysed by the Federal Reserve found that underemployment was highest among criminal justice graduates, at 65.8%, followed by performing arts at 63.9% and fine arts at 58.9%.
Some technical degrees have also produced weak employment outcomes. Computer engineering recorded an unemployment rate of 7.8%, while computer science stood at 7%. Education graduates fared better, with unemployment at 0.7% for special education and 1.2% for elementary education. Nursing recorded 2.1%.
Young graduates and the pressure on the system
Peter Turchin, professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut and a project leader at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna, describes the pattern as “elite overproduction”. His theory is that societies become unstable when they produce more people seeking elite status than there are elite positions available.
He identifies that surplus, alongside falling living standards and governments struggling to meet their financial obligations, as one of three pressures that can precede major political upheaval. Turchin has argued that the US now has too many graduates competing for the number of high-status jobs the economy can provide.
“Look at the overproduction of university degrees,” he said when describing the pattern. He argued that high unemployment among recent graduates showed that the value of a degree “actually declines”.
The theory has gained relevance as young people in several countries have taken their frustration into the streets. The grievances differ, but many centre on access to education, secure employment and a fair route into adult life.
In Nepal, the government banned 26 social media platforms in September 2025. Protests followed within days, with government buildings and politicians’ homes set alight. Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned and at least 76 people died.
The ban was the immediate trigger, but anger had also been building around the “Nepo Kids” hashtag, which highlighted politicians’ children displaying affluent lifestyles online. Youth unemployment in Nepal was about 21%.
India saw a separate protest movement emerge after Chief Justice Surya Kant compared certain activists and unemployed young people with “cockroaches” and “parasites of society”. He later said he had been referring to people with fraudulent degrees.
The following day, 30-year-old Boston University graduate Abhijeet Dipke posted: “What if all cockroaches came together?” The joke developed into the Cockroach Janta Party, a parody of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, and then into a protest movement focused on leaks in national examinations, including the test used to select aspiring doctors.
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned in July after the demonstrations.
France protests over university access
In France, high-school pupils began walking out in mid-September over teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and Parcoursup, the national system that determines university admissions.
By October, about one-third of the country’s 3,700 lycées had been disrupted. On October 17, the Interior Ministry estimated that 550,000 people had taken to the streets as the protests widened to include the cost of living. Violence was reported in several cities, while demonstrations also spread to Belgium, Albania, Greece and Italy.
Among the students’ demands are 250,000 additional university places. Philippe Baptiste, the higher education minister, called the proposal to scrap Parcoursup “pure demagogy”.
The dispute has unfolded as France’s public debt is projected to reach 121.7% of gross domestic product next year, limiting the government’s room to expand services. The confrontation has pitted young people demanding more opportunities against a state that may struggle to fund them.
In the US, the immediate picture is less dramatic, but young workers are facing a similar difficulty entering secure employment. Unemployment among workers aged 20 to 24 was 7.1% in September, compared with 3.6% for those aged 25 to 54 and 3% for workers over 55.
One interpretation is that older employees are remaining in desirable roles for longer, leaving fewer openings for new entrants. Another is that artificial intelligence is reducing the number of entry-level jobs while favouring workers with more experience.
A Census Bureau paper cited in the source material found that graduates in the fields most exposed to artificial intelligence were five percentage points less likely to obtain a first job and earned 13% less.
Underemployment among graduates has long been substantial. Andrew Hanson, senior director at the Strada Education Foundation, said it had historically stood at about 40%, while Federal Reserve data shows the rate has fluctuated between roughly 38% and 47% since 2008.
What has changed, according to the analysis, is the combination of high underemployment with unusually persistent graduate unemployment. A temporary period in a low-skilled job after university can appear less like a short-term detour when the route into a professional career remains blocked.
