When you have higher education and can’t find a job or want to advance, historically a good idea has always been to go back to school. Getting a master’s degree was an almost safe investment in the face of uncertainty because it allowed you to specialize and find a better job. However, if we talk about master’s degrees, that reality is no longer true. More specifically, general master’s degrees.
Because while doctorates or qualifying master’s degrees do work, general master’s degrees suffer an alarming devaluation in the market: according to a study by the Burning Glass Institute with data from the Bureau of Employment Statistics (BLS) of which echoesThe Wall Street Journalthe unemployment rate in the United States among those under 35 years of age with a master’s degree is at one of its highest levels in the last 20 years.
Master’s degrees are worth less and less. What the Burning Glass analysis says is that those who have a master’s degree under 35 years of age are in the 77th percentile of unemployment when the normal is the 50th percentile. In fact, they are behind those with less education. Of course, we are talking about general master’s degrees, not qualifying ones. Furthermore, this phenomenon does not occur among those who have a doctorate.
Gad Levanon, chief economist at the Burning Glass Institute, sums it up appealing to the law of supply and demand: “there are more titles competing for fewer positions than those titles were designed to unlock.” In short: once a master’s degree was a sign of distinction, but when everyone has it, it no longer makes a difference.
Why is it important. Beyond statistical curiosity, it is a question of time, money and expectations. Making an effort to pay for a master’s degree thinking that it is an investment with a quick return and when it is not is frustrating. Plus, a 2025 Indeed survey collect that more than a third of graduates consider that their university degree was a waste of money or time and that they could do the same without it. In the case of generation Z, the percentage rises to 51%.
The boom in master’s degrees has also reached human resources departments: the Society for Human Resource Management warns that more and more companies are replacing degree requirements with practical skills criteria. This represents a gap between young people who accumulate theoretical degrees and human resources offices, which are looking for talent prioritizing, not the paper that proves that you studied it.
Context. The market for people with a master’s degree is saturated simply because there are too many master’s degrees: hyper-specific, online and blended, express… because non-qualifying higher education is a most lucrative business. In the United States between 2005 and 2021, the master’s degree offer grew by 69% to exceed 33,500 according to the Postsecondary Education and Economics Research Center. In Spain, more of the same: “The Spanish university in figures” collect that the offer of master’s degrees in Spain has skyrocketed by 54% since the implementation of the Bologna Plan, going from 2,626 to more than 4,000 official degrees. This boom has been driven exponentially by private universities, with enrollment growth of 250% more.
Meanwhile, two things happened that helped this perfect storm: according to Lightcast data analyzed by the Wall Street Journal, the percentage of job offers that require a university degree fell to 17.8% in 2024 compared to 20.4% five years ago, a trend that already affects 87% of sectors. The second big problem of young graduates is called AI: while HR looks for decisive people, companies are betting on artificial intelligence for those junior positions essential to gain experience.
In Spain they work, but with small print. The CYD 2024 report points out that in 2023 Spain reached the highest overqualification rate in the entire European Union: 35.8% of higher graduates between 20 and 64 years old work in low-skilled positions, compared to the 21.9% average in the EU. That is to say, it is not that these master’s degrees do not help you find a job, it is that they help you find a job below what they promise.
Yes, but. Practical skills may be emerging as an important requirement for employability, but theory is one thing and practice another: although 85% of companies say they hire based on skills, when it comes down to it, only 1 in every 700 actual hires meets that criterion. according to a report joint Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School. On the other hand, there are master’s degrees and master’s degrees: we have already seen that the qualifications continue to work and there are also subjects with high demand that make them potentially attractive.
In Xataka | If the question is “how can I earn more money throughout my life,” the answer is simple: by going to college
Cover | Irene Vega
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