It is without any doubt that our economy is on the road to recovery. According to the article, however, the recovery is following the conventional wisdom by favoring those with a college degree and leaving behind those with a high school diploma or less.
People with a high school education or less make up about 36% of all workers over age 25 in the U.S. Their job losses started in 2007 and have yet to stop. About 767,000 fewer workers reported having a job in 2012, than they did in 2010.
Meanwhile, workers with bachelor's degrees have reported 5% employment gains.
Workers with the highest level of education - including master's, doctorates and professional degrees are experiencing the fastest employment gains. About 1.1 million more of them say they had jobs in 2012.
One of the explanations is that highly educated workers have to resolve to take low-wage jobs for which they are overqualified, pushing the "not-as-educated" workers to unemployment. As a matter of fact, there are over 1 million people with bachelor's degrees who are retail sales clerks in the United States. It is sad but it's what's happening right now. People would much rather have a low-wage job than be unemployed these days. So your parents might be right after all. It is very likely that you will be better off with at least a college degree.
5 comments:
Although it is good that graduates are finding work, I think what really needs to be evaluated is the types for jobs they are getting. While a low paying job is better than no job at all, it doesn't do much good if these graduates are buried in debt from student loans and they are not working in jobs where they can repay them.
With these kinds of statistics, it appears that a bachelor's degree does not hold much value in today's economy. It seems that if individuals want to live out the "American dream", they will likely have to pursue at least a master's degree. Along with more education comes more student loans. Individuals will need to decide if their time and money are worth sacrificing in order to obtain a better job.
I would disagree that a bachelor's degree does not hold much value. There is a huge difference between holding a bachelor's degree and holding something of less worth. What has changed is that the amount of people holding bachelor degrees in developed nations has increased; thus the competition has increased significantly. Also, technological advances reduced the demand for unskilled labor as machinery can replace some of the workers' task. Despite so, many people from low-income families may have a difficult time sending their children to attend higher education. Also, low-income is one of the factors that affects the success of college students as evidenced in data sets on student graduation rate comparing first-gen college to students to students with parents who attended college.
I do agree though that highly educated people may take low-wage jobs and be responsible for some of the employment. I also agree that the increased competition due to the increase in skilled labor (education) has driven more people to pursue at least a masters degree and thus force people who want to make a decent living give in to student loans. Perhaps, the US government should spend more to help subsidize the cost for quality education. That has been the suggestion by many, but I doubt the government will ever take that suggestion anytime soon.
Another factor that probably needs to be considered is the type of degree earned. There are always new articles saying that these majors have the highest unemployment and these are the majors that employers want. If college graduates continue to work jobs where there is not much room for advancement, I think there will be a shift in what students study in order to increase their chances of employment after graduation.
I have a hard time believing that anyone who holds a bachelors degree does not have the capabilities to land a better job. Unfortunately, I believe that our society as a whole has become satisfied with settling for less than they're capable of. I think many of those underemployed people with bachelors degrees need to rethink the effort they are putting into the careers. There are many different strategies that those people could utilize to make themselves more marketable and appealing. However, I do agree that the type of bachelors degree is crucial. As for the retail statistic, I do know several people who hold Arts degrees and have ended up working in retail.
Post a Comment