Posted on 02/25/2024 3:29:52 PM PST by george76
Seventy-three percent of college graduates who enter the labor market underemployed stay that way for 10 years...
almost half of America’s college graduates are working at high-school-level jobs.
The study, published Feb. 22, also found that 52 percent of college graduates are underemployed a year after graduation.
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employers are increasingly turning to factors other than college degrees to determine competency.
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52 percent of college graduates are underemployed a year after graduation. Even 10 years after graduation, 45 percent of college graduates remain underemployed.
Graduates who enter the labor market with a college-level job are said to “rarely slide into underemployment, as 79 percent of them maintain a college-level job for five years after graduation. Of those who remained employed in college-level occupations for five years after graduation, 86 percent remained in a college-level job for a decade.
Conversely, 73 percent of college graduates who enter the labor market underemployed stay that way for 10 years.
Then there’s the cost-to-degree and degree-to-job ratio.
A June 2023 analysis by Campus shows that an associate degree costs about $11,600 per year, including room and board, for a full-time student. That’s $23,200 for this two-year degree.
The average yearly cost to attend a four-year public college or university with room and board was $21,035. That’s $84,140 for a bachelor’s degree.
The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the median annual salary of someone with an associate degree is $48,240. For those with a bachelor’s degree, it’s $68,736.
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For a bachelor’s degree, data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that business degrees are the number one major (19 percent) among today’s college students. Data compiled by Coursera shows that the median annual salary for someone with a bachelor’s degree in business is $65,000.
The second most popular degree is listed simply as “Health,” which ranked at 13 percent.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the median salary for a bachelor’s degree in the health care industry is between $51,330 and $128,790. The third most popular degrees are in social sciences and history (8 percent).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the typical salary for someone with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences and history is around $64,540.
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Another consideration is whether the graduate can find a job that covers the cost of their student loan payments.
According to Bankrate, the current interest rate for federal student loans for undergraduates is 5.50 percent. Graduate students pay 7.05 percent or 8.05 percent for unsubsidized loans.
According to the student loan calculator by Smart Asset, the average debt for a student loan is $28,400. At the current interest rate, monthly payments for a 10-year payoff period are $308.
Degrees Versus Skills...
Julie Lammers, senior vice president of advocacy and corporate social responsibility at American Student Assistance (ASA) believes this is further proof that college degrees are not as valuable to the typical college student as they are being led to believe. She cited a September 2022 survey conducted by ASA and Jobs for the Future that found that employers are seeing less value in a bachelor’s degree.
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“In fact, 72 percent of surveyed employers said that they found a bachelor’s degree to be an unreliable way of assessing the quality of a candidate and are looking for ways to better evaluate the actual skills of a prospective employee rather than a degree type,” she told The Epoch Times.
Moreover, she said a November 2023 study by ASA showed that 71 percent of young people in non-degree pathway programs “perceive that they are workforce ready.” Asked if the degrees college students are pursuing contribute to their state of underemployment and their inability to find jobs that will provide sufficient income enough to cover the cost of obtaining the degree. Ms. Lammers said this wasn’t “universally true.”
“What we do know is that many young people are pursuing degrees that are not aligned to long-term career goals because they have never had the chance to explore and test and try career interests prior to making choices about postsecondary education,” she explained. “The lack of planning, and the fact that many young people are not aligning postsecondary education to prepare them for a chosen career contributes to this underemployment and struggle in the job market.”
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Ms. Lammers also said that ASA believes it’s critical for young people who want jobs that lead to economic prosperity to get more exposure to the working world at an earlier age.
“Not only does this allow a young person to build skills and a career identity, but it allows them to start building the social capital that can lead to long-term career success,” she said. “When young people have exposure to work at an earlier age through opportunities like internships and entrepreneurial experiences, they can begin to build these professional networks and the skills that employers say they desperately need but aren’t seeing when just looking for a degree.”
Ms. Lammers also said it’s important to note that what employers say they want most in employees are “durable skills,” a set of professional capabilities like teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking, and flexibility, which are essential in almost every job.
“It is these durable skills that are desperately desired by employers,” Ms. Lammers said, citing a study by America Succeeds that found 70 percent of the most requested skills in nearly 82 million job postings are Durable Skills.
“These are the skills employers are looking for on resumes,” she said, “Not just a degree.”
College?
Define the learning/curriculum/standards at “College” these days....
How many of these morons majored in Gender Studies or Women Studies or whatever the Poison Ivy and Left Wing Universities are pushing?
Not surprising. What are you going to with a gender studies degree?!
“Half of college graduates have high school level skills.”
Exactly. I bet most of those are short of high school level.
Hwy, but those Spring Breaks in Miami and the Caribbean were special and paid for with my government loan - paid for the Ford Mustang too.
And they're unqualified for THOSE jobs.
Colleges are what one makes out them.
The article is also what one makes out it.
My plumber retiring at 50yo not due to lavish pay but completely shot knees gets it.
Good. Do your post-grad at Hard Knocks. You’ll learn more valuable lessons, and un-learn some crap.
Qualified for many jobs, but due to a physical deformity I never get past the first job interview.
CONSIDERING the quality of a high school/college today VS what was available in the early 60’s......
I am surprised they can hold down ANY jobs.
A rural 5th grader in the mid 1800s had more knowledge about running a business than a business degree person today.
Wow! So nobody needs a major in womens’ studies??
the real sad part is, some of these highschooler type jobs REQUIRE some kind of degree...
My son graduated from Sac State, and was underemployed, but he found a solution. Now, he is an Air Force pilot. After he got his dollar ride, he knew that flying was in his blood. 👍
I was a coop student where I worked in a semiconductor facility. I went to work full time a week after graduation and during a downturn. I don’t think they ever looked at my transcript, they just knew I would be an asset.
That's because colleges 'teach' so much stuff that ain't related to actually having a 'job' that CREATES something.
Also, the other half of the half are NOT going to be working in their major within ten years.
Perhaps because the quality of many college educations today is often less than a high school education of 2 or 3 generations back.
Today colleges are graduating students who cannot speak properly, make a fact based judgement, do basic math or write above a grade school level.
Michelle Obama’s illiterate senior thesis at Princeton University is a case in point.
The only thing that qualifies you for is to teach women’s studies somewhere else.
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