Our students have invested four or more years in college and grad school---yet faced stiff competition in gaining employment. The DREAM Act will greatly add to the pool of job seekers.




Have degree - and pink slip
The number of college grads seeking work is at an all time high, which means more bad news for the broader economy.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- There are currently a record number of unemployed college graduates seeking work. So many, in fact, that they outnumber high school dropouts on the job hunt.

In November the number of people with a higher degree who were out of work rose to 1.413 million from 1.411 million in the previous month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Comparatively, there were 1.282 million unemployed high school dropouts, up slightly from 1.273 million in October.

"College graduates are not going to get away unscathed," said Dean Baker, director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC, "everyone is being hit by this."

While the manufacturing and construction industries were hardest hit by layoffs last month - 85,000 and 82,000 jobs lost, respectively, according to the Labor Department - it is the professional and business services category that many economists view as a barometer for overall economic activity.

In its November jobs report, the Labor Department said that firms in the business and professional services category cut 136,000 jobs, the largest one-month drop on record. Additionally, financial services jobs fell by 32,000, another record decline.

Those job cuts are hitting college educated workers the hardest, according to Dr. Reena Aggarwal, a professor of finance at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.

"A lot of the job losses are the more higher paying jobs and it's just going to mean far fewer dollars flowing into the economy," she said.