There was a net decline of 406,000 in the number of Americans age 25 or older with a bachelor’s degree or higher who were working in the United States in June 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics

A net of 309,000 in this demographic simply dropped out of the labor force, which means that they neither had a job in June 2012 nor actively tried to find one, according to BLS. The number of Americans age 25 or older with a bachelor’s degree or higher who were “unemployed” — meaning that they did not have a job but did actively try to find one — increased by 96,000 in June 2012. According to the new seasonally adjusted numbers that BLS released, there were 46,355,000 Americans age 25 or older with a bachelor’s degree or higher who held jobs in May 2012. In June 2012, that number fell to 45,949,000 — a decline of 406,000. In May 2012, according to BLS, there had been 48,232,000 Americans with a bachelor’s degree or higher who were in the “labor force” — meaning that they either had a job or were actively seeking one. However, in June 2012, that number fell to 47,923,000 — meaning a net of 309,000 college-educated Americans age 25 or older had left the labor force in and were no longer even seeking a job. In 2012, from May to June, the number of college grads who were counted as “unemployed” —meaning that they did not have a job but had tried to get one in the past month — climbed by 96,000, from 1,877,000 in May to 1,973,000 in June.