In industrialized countries particularly, the education of unemployed youth is at unprecedentedly high levels, and there are immense problems in finding jobs for graduates. In the past decade educational systems have produced more persons with higher educational credentials than there are job opportunities that can utilize such training. Thus, the unemployment rates of college and university graduates is rising; equally prevalent is the shift of such persons to occupations that traditionally have not required a college education. Graduates themselves are likely to have greater expectations with regard to their occupational attainments than the labour market can fulfil, and thus their job dissatisfaction is greater, with its deleterious consequences for productivity.
Prolonging studies to the age of 20 or 23 has proved to be counter-productive. After spending so many years on the school bench, many young people find that they are not able to tackle something practical, while others feel that they need to take time out to rest. Thus many years are wasted, years these young people could have used to put their initiative and creativity into practice.