At one point, young professionals were said to be the least affected by the down economy, as older workers were being pushed out in favor of cheap labor and forced to rely on diminished retirement savings to survive. The fact that the young labor force would have time to build up their 401ks was seen as their saving grace but you can’t put money up for retirement when you don’t have a job at all.

That’s the reality painted by a new analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press that has found about 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 were unemployed or severely underemployed last year. That number is the highest it’s been in at least 11 years.

“Simply put, we’re failing kids coming out of college,” said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University who analyzed the numbers. “We’re going to need a lot better job growth and connections to the labor market, otherwise college debt will grow.”

Professional prospects varied by industry and region. For instance, demand is strong in science, education, and health fields, but dwindling in the arts and humanities. Median wages are lower for those with bachelor’s degrees across the board when compared to 2000 data, and sadly most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention for the aging population.

According to government projections released last month, only three of the 30 occupations with the largest projected number of job openings by 2020 will require a bachelor’s degree or higher to fill the position — teachers, college professors and accountants,” Yahoo news report. “Most job openings are in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving, jobs which aren’t easily replaced by computers.

The Mountain West was most likely to have young college graduates jobless or underemployed—about 3 out of 5. Grads in the rural southeast followed behind, while the Pacific region ranked high on the list as well. The south, particularly Texas, appears to be the place to be right now. The area was was most likely to have young college graduates in higher-skill jobs.

In more sobering news, American workers are also struggling to compete with educated foreign-born residents for jobs and degree inflation as more and more young people earn bachelor’s degrees, making them commonplace for low-wage jobs, but inadequate for higher-paying ones. Sigh.

What advice would you give a recent grad trying to make it as a young professional?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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By Charlotte Young

These days the kids aren’t waiting in anticipation for daddy to come home from work. They’ve been with him all day. According to Bloomberg, while mommy is working, it’s the husbands that take on the role of keeping house and children.

Stay-at-home fathers are no new trend. According to family demographer Lynda Laughlin with the Census Bureau, the number has been growing since about 1988. But now, data from the Census Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that 54 percent of unemployed fathers with a working wife and preschool-age children are the primary caregivers, or the adult that spends the most time with the child. The number of dads providing consistent child care to children under 15 jumped to 32 percent in 2010.

Part of the reason behind the rise is attributed to the recession. Men were hit harder than women financially when the economy took a downturn. A report from the Pew Research Center revealed that men lost more jobs between December 2007 and May 2011 than women.

The recession may have taken a toll on the financial strength and the traditional roles in the family, but it certainly brought untold happiness to kids glad to have their daddy around.

“You can’t put a price on a father-daughter relationship.” Jeff VanderHejiden told Bloomberg. The former counselor at a residential program for troubled teens was fired last year, two weeks after he’d received a raise and a promotion.

But the recession can’t be blamed completely for the rising number of fathers as primary caregivers. Despite the loss, the study also revealed that men have regained job more quickly than women. It seems some men want to stay at home with the kids.

Ellen Galinksy, president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute in New York, tells Bloomberg that as women become a stronger economic force, more men are deciding to stay home with the kids.

Some couples make the decision for the husband to stay at home as a financial decision regardless of the recession. After budgeting the potential cost of outside child care and the income of a low-paying job, they realize the two cancel each other out.

Patrick Spillman, 42 made the decision to stay home with his daughter for that very reason.

“If I’m making X and my wife is making X plus 10, who do you want making the money?”  He said to Bloomberg. “It’s a matter of dollars and cents.”

(CNNMoney.com) – The panel of economists responsible for officially deciding the length of recessions said Monday that it’s “premature” to say when the recent downturn ended.

The National Bureau of Economic Research said the panel met Thursday in the hopes of determining when the economy, which slipped into recession in December 2007, hit bottom.

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