It'll be an incredibly tough job market for college graduates in the months ahead and those who will find jobs may have to settle for part-time or low level positions.

Rutgers graduation
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That's according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute.

"In general, even though the economy is improving, it is not improving fast enough to absorb everyone who would like to get a job who is already laid off or looking for work," said Carl Van Horn, Director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. "Of course, there are also new graduates coming out. Nationally, there are about 1,500,000 people who will receive a Bachelor's degree. So, we expect the competition will continue to be difficult for many students graduating in the 2013 cycle."

The unemployment rate for recent college grads between the ages of 21 to 24 has averaged 8.8 percent over the last year. So, what is a young college grad to do?

"They can always combine part-time work or continue on to graduate school. I certainly urge them to take a job even if it's not the one they dreamed of because that part-time job can often turn into a full-time job. At the very least, even if it's not within their field of interest, they're going to be gaining experience and they'll get some money and then they'll have an opportunity to transition as the economy improves," said Van Horn.

"Overall, we've recovered a good amount of jobs nationally, about 60 percent, since the recession, but there's still that 40 percent hole and then new people enter the labor market," said Van Horn. "Some people may have stopped looking for jobs at this point and as the economy improves, they may return to the labor market, so it could be another few years or so before we get to where we were in 2007," said Van Horn.

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