College seniors can rejoice becasue, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, the job market is the best it’s been in eight years, CNN reports.
“Due to the progression of the economic recovery and a substantial improvement in the unemployment rate, members of the Class of 2016 currently have better job prospects than the classes of 2009–2015,” the report reads.
The unemployment rate for recent college graduates is down to 5.6 percent, CNN reports. But the EPI’s report explains that recent college graduates will still face economic challenges, including a pretty big gap between recently-graduated men and women when it comes to wages, according to The Huffington Post. Women made about $4 less per hour than men as of February 2016, and while men’s wages have risen 8 percent since 2000, women’s have gone down 7 percent.
CNN also points out that while that average unemployment rate doesn’t sound so bad, the rate for different groups tells another story—While white recent grads have an unemployment rate of under 5 percent, black college grads are looking at a rate over 9 percent. And the EPI researchers said that in terms of wages, top-earning men are probably making the average wage seem higher than it actually is, highlighting growing income inequality.
So, while the job market is the best it’s been for college grads in quite some time, women and people of color are still facing gaping inequality when it comes to equal pay.