More high-school graduates are being diverted from college campuses by brighter prospects for blue-collar jobs in a historically strong labor market for less-educated workers.

The college enrollment rate for recent U.S. high-school graduates, ages 16 to 24, declined to 62% last year from 66.2% in 2019, just before the pandemic began, according to the latest Labor Department data. The rate topped out at 70.1% in 2009.

Most Americans don’t think a college degree is worth the cost, according to a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll earlier this year, a new low in confidence in what has long been a hallmark of the American dream. College graduates are facing a more uncertain job search this summer as companies rethink the value of many white-collar roles.