Finding a job fresh out of college is almost as hard as committing to a major within your first year on campus. As millennials, we face steep competition before even entering the workforce.

Not only is the unemployment rate sky rocketing within our generation, but millennials must come to terms with higher university tuitions, causing a tremendous amount of student loan debt that’s greater than ever before.

According to a survey taken by Monster TRAK in 2006, 48 percent of graduates move back home after graduation. This percentage fluctuates as the prosperity of the economy does.

One would reason that if you spent numerous years working towards a degree, it would be your golden ticket to employment within your desired profession. But the real world isn’t Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. It seems as more are degrees earned, the lower the rate of employment ascends.

In 2015, a projected 2.8 million university graduates entered the U.S. workforce with a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree as America’s unemployment rate fell to its bottommost percentage in practically 7 years, as stated by the National Center for Education Statistics.

“If you look at the numbers starting in 2009, we’ve been in the longest sustained period of unemployment since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began collecting their data following World War II,” said David Pasch, spokesman for Generation Opportunity.

These statistics and research makes it undeniably less motivating to attend college and earn a degree.

A report from Pew Research showed young adults without student debt have a net worth that is 7 times higher than those who do. Not surprisingly, millennials are deferring from homeownership and substantial purchases due to unavoidable student debt and underemployment.

The employment gap has amplified over the years and across many generations. According to the BLS, the U.S. unemployment rate for 20 to 24 year olds is nearly doubled than that of 25 to 34 year olds.

As reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in 2012 about 44 percent of graduates were working jobs that didn’t require a college degree. It makes you wonder, why aim for a degree when a majority of graduates don’t even use it?

Well according to a Pew Research Center Report, people with at least a bachelor’s degree had median annual earnings of $45,500 compared to the median for people with only some college at $30,000 or a high school diploma at only $28,000 a year.

The difficult part is finding an occupation in which your degree would come to use rather than applying for a job that virtually anyone could do. “They’re the fist generation that needs to have a college degree and experience to compete, before they even enter the workforce,” research professor for Georgetown University’s Center on Education and Workforce Anthony Carnevale stated in an interview with Newsweek.

The advantages of having a degree most certainly out way the off-putting facts of unemployment. The U.S. Census Bureau stated that college graduates earn 75 percent more than a high school graduate. That equals to about $1 million or more over lifetime. Imagine the impact on your lifestyle that would have.

Pew Research Center said that millennials are projected to overtake the baby boomers as the nation’s largest living generation. By 2020, millennials will make up an estimated 46 percent of all U.S. workers.

The employment rate within our generation is anticipated to inflate within the next few years due to technological advances and opportunity growth within the workforce. A significantly higher salary should be enough incentive for millennials to be impelled to obtain a degree.