With huge loans to repay, students with degrees in the sciences and the arts fail to find a job befitting their academic degrees, spurring them to take up low-end employment opportunities. "When I could not find a decent enough job, I decided to work at a pizza shop to set in motion repaying my student debt," said Michael Jefferson, 27, a native of Chicago, Illinois. He represents one of 59% underemployed youth with a master's degree, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That unemployment haunts the youth is borne out by the 1 crore unemployed people under the age of 25, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "I have Rs15 lakh student loan to repay after I graduate next month," says a grim-faced Rachelle Blake, an alumna of the University of Tennessee. The pursuit of her dream of getting a degree in management will, for the time being, pale into insignificance, as Blake has made repaying her loan top priority — something that itself would take years to accomplish. "I am not returning to college before repaying every penny of it," she says. Blake has been assured by her bank that the monthly installments she pays back would be commensurate with her salary.