Deseret News16 February 2013 Issue No:259
When Barack Obama first became president, he set the goal of increasing
America’s college graduation rate to 60% by 2020. But the idea of
working towards becoming a nation of college graduates has a major
problem, according to a report by the Center for College Affordability
and Productivity, writes Michael De Groote for Deseret News. There are not enough jobs that require a college degree.
Analysing 2010 data from the US Department of Labor, the report finds that of the 41.7 million working college graduates, barely half (51.9%) are working in jobs that require a bachelor degree or higher. Thirty-seven percent are in jobs that require a high school diploma or less. The rest (11.1%) are in jobs that require some post-secondary training such as an associate's degree.
In other words, there are 13 million college graduates working in jobs that don't require a bachelor degree or more.
Analysing 2010 data from the US Department of Labor, the report finds that of the 41.7 million working college graduates, barely half (51.9%) are working in jobs that require a bachelor degree or higher. Thirty-seven percent are in jobs that require a high school diploma or less. The rest (11.1%) are in jobs that require some post-secondary training such as an associate's degree.
In other words, there are 13 million college graduates working in jobs that don't require a bachelor degree or more.
When Barack Obama first became President four years
ago, he set a goal to increase the nation's college graduation rate to
60 percent by 2020. The idea of working towards becoming a nation of
college graduates, however, has a major problem according to a new report by the Center for College Affordability & Productivity.
There are not enough jobs that require a college degree.
Analyzing 2010 data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the report finds that of the 41.7 million working college graduates, barely half (51.9 percent) are working in jobs that require a bachelor's degree or higher. Thirty-seven percent are in jobs that require a high-school diploma or less. The rest (11.1 percent) are in jobs that require some postsecondary training such as an associate's degree.
In other words, there are 13 million college graduates working in jobs that don't require a bachelor's degree or more.
The problem was driven home for the report's lead author, economist Richard Vedder, when he needed some yard work done. "One day I had some guy cut down a tree," he says. "He had a master's degree in history."
So Vedder, the senior author of the report and director of CCAP, says he started to research the phenomenon of underemployed graduates — eventually leading to the report.
Number of graduates soars
It wasn't always this way. In 2010 the proportion of adults with degrees was 30 percent. This is five times higher than six decades ago. In the 50s or 60s the percentage of college graduates was in the single digits.
"When I started teaching in the (1960s) going to college was still a somewhat unusual, slightly elitist thing to do," says Vedder, who is a Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Ohio University. "Almost all graduates got a pretty good job. Even graduates in middle-quality state schools always got jobs."
While the number of college graduates has soared, the jobs that require that expertise hasn't — forcing an increasing number of graduates to take jobs that historically didn't require a lot of education.
It turns out, for example, that 15.4 percent of taxi drivers have college degrees, 12.9 percent of parking lot attendants have at least a bachelor's degree and 24.6 percent of retail sales people have at least a bachelor's degree.
Earnings premium
Other studies (such as one at Georgetown University) have shown the earnings premium of college degrees. College graduates simply earn more than those who have just a high school diploma. This increase in potential income is seen to justify the expense of spending money on getting a degree.
The CCAP's report, however, says that although many benefit economically from going to college, there are still many that do not achieve those gains. Employers simply do not need as many college graduates as the colleges are cranking out.
The study says this "over-credentialing" of the population may also mean that society may be "over-investing" in higher education instead of looking at alternatives such as vocational training.
"Can you predict ahead of time if going to college is a good idea for someone?" Vedder says. "Yes, for a good number of people."
For example, if young people are average or below average in their grades, Vedder recommends trying perhaps a community college first. If they flourish, they may wish then to transfer to a four-year institution.
"We need to be more nuanced and be careful when we say whether it is a good thing for a kid to go to college," he says.
There are not enough jobs that require a college degree.
Analyzing 2010 data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the report finds that of the 41.7 million working college graduates, barely half (51.9 percent) are working in jobs that require a bachelor's degree or higher. Thirty-seven percent are in jobs that require a high-school diploma or less. The rest (11.1 percent) are in jobs that require some postsecondary training such as an associate's degree.
In other words, there are 13 million college graduates working in jobs that don't require a bachelor's degree or more.
The problem was driven home for the report's lead author, economist Richard Vedder, when he needed some yard work done. "One day I had some guy cut down a tree," he says. "He had a master's degree in history."
So Vedder, the senior author of the report and director of CCAP, says he started to research the phenomenon of underemployed graduates — eventually leading to the report.
Number of graduates soars
It wasn't always this way. In 2010 the proportion of adults with degrees was 30 percent. This is five times higher than six decades ago. In the 50s or 60s the percentage of college graduates was in the single digits.
"When I started teaching in the (1960s) going to college was still a somewhat unusual, slightly elitist thing to do," says Vedder, who is a Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Ohio University. "Almost all graduates got a pretty good job. Even graduates in middle-quality state schools always got jobs."
While the number of college graduates has soared, the jobs that require that expertise hasn't — forcing an increasing number of graduates to take jobs that historically didn't require a lot of education.
It turns out, for example, that 15.4 percent of taxi drivers have college degrees, 12.9 percent of parking lot attendants have at least a bachelor's degree and 24.6 percent of retail sales people have at least a bachelor's degree.
Earnings premium
Other studies (such as one at Georgetown University) have shown the earnings premium of college degrees. College graduates simply earn more than those who have just a high school diploma. This increase in potential income is seen to justify the expense of spending money on getting a degree.
The CCAP's report, however, says that although many benefit economically from going to college, there are still many that do not achieve those gains. Employers simply do not need as many college graduates as the colleges are cranking out.
The study says this "over-credentialing" of the population may also mean that society may be "over-investing" in higher education instead of looking at alternatives such as vocational training.
"Can you predict ahead of time if going to college is a good idea for someone?" Vedder says. "Yes, for a good number of people."
For example, if young people are average or below average in their grades, Vedder recommends trying perhaps a community college first. If they flourish, they may wish then to transfer to a four-year institution.
"We need to be more nuanced and be careful when we say whether it is a good thing for a kid to go to college," he says.
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