DeKALB – After seeing some of his peers underemployed and buried in student loans, Andrew Nordman decided dropping out of college and joining the workforce was the best choice for him.

Nordman, the 28-year-old owner of Cademon Brewing in Genoa, said he saved thousands of dollars and a year of his life by dropping out before his senior year in college and using experience he gained outside of school to land him a job as the lead developer at a Web development studio.

“I know folks that I went to college with who were in the same program, and they did finish their degree, but they didn’t have the work experience that I had, and they’re still struggling,” Nordman said. “They’re still trying to find that breakout role. Some of them have abandoned their ideals entirely because they just needed to find some work.”

Millennials – loosely defined as people born between 1981 and 1997 – are collectively more educated than generations before them, but they also experience the highest rate of unemployment compared with other generations, when comparing years that each generation was four years into a economic recovery, according to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center.

As job requirements are rapidly changing and a college education is marketed as a necessity, some young people are struggling to find work, even after years of schooling, said Michelle Allen, Career Center coordinator at Kishwaukee College.

“One other challenge I think that they face, truthfully, is that a lot of the jobs of tomorrow have not even been created yet and you’ve got to stage yourself to be a part of that,” she said. “But that is an extremely exciting time because they’re the ones creating those next jobs, that next world, and what it looks like.”

Justin Wilson, a senior kinesiology major at Northern Illinois University, is just beginning his job search. Although he isn’t feeling too much pressure yet, he feels there is more competition than for someone 50 years ago entering the job market, he said.

“Back then, once you graduated college, you basically had a job. It was point A to point B,” he said. “It’s a lot more competitive of a market out there, so it’s a little bit more tough.”

Nordman gained three years’ experience as the lead developer at a Web development studio while he was in college. After leaving school, he used that experience to join a startup company in DeKalb, which led to a corporate job and later to a decision to start his own business, he said.

Others Nordman’s age are having a harder time, however.

Wilson, 22, remains optimistic about his future career, but hasn’t had any job offers yet. He knows he might not get to work in the field he studied, he said.

“People aren’t going into the exact majors that they want because of how competitive it is,” Wilson said. “It’s just interesting to see what actually turns out.”

Among millennial college graduates, 3.8 percent were unemployed in 2013, while only 2.5 percent of recent baby boomer college graduates could not find jobs in March 1979, Pew research shows.

Paradoxically, the higher and more specialized a younger person’s degrees become, the harder it can be for them to find jobs. The kinds of work staffing agencies are able to employ people through generally don’t require a college education, said Megan Reynolds, Branch Manager of Agency Staffing, a Hampshire employment agency that serves people in DeKalb County. Although there are certainly positions available for people with a college education, local staffing agencies typically don’t employ overqualified workers because employers fear they will leave for a better position, she said.

A college degree is still important, but a job seeker becomes more marketable with experience, Allen said.

Allen has been working in career services for 10 years. More is being asked of today’s college graduates than in the past, including the expectation that they have some work experience when they enter the job market, she said.

“At the sophomore level, we’re really looking at internships, but with even [college] freshmen, we’ll do job-shadow and things like that,” Allen said. “It’s something that is expanding. It’s exploding.”

Since the end of the Great Recession in June 2009, Illinois has had a hard time keeping up with the rest of the nation in improving its employment rates. In April, the state still needed to create 18.3 percent more jobs to regain those lost during the recession, according to the IDES.

Additionally, the average hourly wages of young workers have stagnated between about $16 and $18, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

“I think that we have an incredibly outdated system that is fueled by people who still have the concept of the ‘50s and ‘70s, where you just had to get yourself a part-time job and, now you have enough money to pay your own way through college, and right then you get your degree and have so many prospects opening up – and the reality is, that’s dead,” Nordman said. “We unfortunately are not yet in a position as millennials to have the power to be able to change that thinking.”

Nordman says he’s been fortunate to experience only two weeks of unemployment in the past 13 years. During his career, he has felt slighted being a young employee, he said.

“I have worked as the No. 2 at a bunch of small companies, and the interesting part about it, especially at a younger age, is that being the No. 2 when you’re under 30 is not quite the same as being the number two when you’re older,” Nordman said. “There are a lot of good ideas that could go really well, but ultimately are passed over because of the fact that ‘you don’t have the world experience necessary to back up those concepts.’ “

Based on how things are going now, Nordman is glad he was able to start his own business and become his own boss, he said.

“It is a system that is at best, broken, and at worst, causing a larger class divide that as we age will only make the population worse,” he said.

If Millennials are able to keep up with the changing times and remain in touch with their field, Allen believes things will look up for the young and unemployed, she said.

“They tend know ‘I’m better at this. I like this. This is the kind of area I’m going to excel in,’ “ Allen said. “I think there’s as bit of fearlessness in them. They’re willing to try new things; they’re willing to tackle things.”

OUTBOX: Unemployment among 25- to 32-year-olds with at least a bachelor’s degree:

Millennials in 2013: 3.8 percent

Generation Xers in 1995: 2.8 percent

Later boomers in 1986: 2.3 percent

Early boomers in 1979: 2.5 percent

Silents in 1965: 1.4 percent

Source: Pew Research Center