This statistic doesn't make any sense if it's an attempt to show how many people are getting college degrees, but I don't think that's what it's trying to demon

This statistic doesn't make any sense if it's an attempt to show how many people are getting college degrees, but I don't think that's what it's trying to demonstrate. It's trying to give some measure of how many young people are having trouble finding jobs because they lack college degrees. This isn't the ideal measure, surely: percentage of job-seekers 17-24 would obviously be better. In the absence of that statistic, however, it doesn't make sense to try to factor out current students. Having a job while attending university is very common, and is one of the best ways to lessen the tuition burden.