Congratulations class of 2016, you majored in debt

President Obama delivered a tongue-lashing commencement address to students at Howard University last weekend, saying many things with which I agreed. Opposing views should not be shut out and freedom of speech on college campuses must be protected. 

However, as the father of a soon-to-be college student, Obama missed a major problem that many Howard graduates and grads around the country face. When he talked about how college students today have it better than previous generations, he didn’t acknowledge that many students graduate with substantial debt, only to enter a stagnant economy that holds limited opportunities for well-paying jobs.

The class of 2016 holds the distinction of graduating with the highest average debt burden in history. An estimated seven-in-ten graduates will walk away with roughly $37,172 in student loans as they enter the workforce. They beat the Class of 2015, which owed over $35,000 on average. Black young adults carry a greater student debt burden than their peers and black, first-generation college graduates are especially prone to incurring student debt.

How will young people afford to repay that debt? This would be less of a challenge in a robust economy growing faster than the currently meager 0.5 percent growth rate. With that harsh reality in mind, it’s no surprise that the millennial joblessness rate stood at 12.7, according to my organization’s Millennial Jobs Report. And millions of young workers are part of the 6 million Americans who find themselves no choice other than to work part-time when they would prefer full-time work.

Even those with jobs have their own struggles. The median national salary for recent graduates with a bachelor’s degree is $43,000. Yet that number doesn’t represent an improvement over recent years. The real wages of young college graduates are 2.5 percent lower today than they were in 2000, while for high school graduates they’re 5.5 percent lower.