This year\u2019s college graduates will have to be more creative to land a job they want.<\/p>\n
The unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22 to 27 fell to 5.6 percent in 2013 from 6.4 percent at the recession\u2019s peak in 2009. Among 22-year-old degree holders who found jobs in the past three years, more than half were in roles not requiring a college diploma, said John Schmitt, a labor economist for the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.<\/p>\n
Many graduates have traveled nontraditional pathways to find employment in their desired fields. Rory Molleda, 22, started an unpaid internship at Washington\u2019s D.C. United soccer team a week after finishing Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, a year ago.<\/p>\n
Forty job applications later, he networked his way to a paid position at another company that wasn\u2019t exactly what he wanted. In January, he landed his \u201cdream job\u201d\u009d as a team operations coordinator for D.C. United and said he feels lucky.<\/p>\n