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College educated? You're doing better than most.

Unemployment rates are slowly falling for all groups, but those who have a college degree are faring better. The recovery for this group looks significantly different than it does for groups with lesser educational backgrounds.

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Robert Galbraith/Reuters/File
Job seekers wait to speak to a representative for positions at a new Target store in San Francisco, Calif., in 2012. Although unemployment rates are falling nationwide, joblessness continues to hit those with less education harder than those with college degrees.

The multi-speed nature of the economic recovery has perhaps been the single greatest source of confusion for market-watchers, journalists, investors and business owners over the last few years. When most people talk in terms of "the economy" being good or bad, they mean it as a whole. Much harder to have that discussion without all of the caveats these days.

For example, the unemployment rate for the college-educated is under five percent and is now attaining the levels of the Bush or Clinton administration. The recovery for this demo looks and feels significantly different than it does for groups with lesser educational backgrounds - although unemployment is slowly falling for all.

From Bill McBride:

Clearly education matters with regards to the unemployment rate - and it appears all four groups are generally trending down. Although education matters for the unemployment rate, it doesn't appear to matter as far as finding new employment (all four categories are only gradually declining). Note: This says nothing about the quality of jobs - as an example, a college graduate working at minimum wage would be considered "employed."

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