There are so many bad things happening right now, from wars to the looming loss of health insurance for millions of Americans, that the plight of recent college graduates unable to find jobs may not seem like that big a deal. But it’s unusual: Highly educated Americans normally have considerably lower unemployment than the average worker. And it also suggests that something is happening under the surface of an economy that by many of the usual measures still looks pretty good.

So let me take a break from my usual concerns to talk about what may be going on for graduates and what it might mean for the future.