17,000,000 College-Educated Americans Are Wasting Their Degree On Menial Jobs

Business Insider ^ | 10/30/2010 | Hannah Kim

[WebFocus]

There's a good chance that the server pouring your coffee and the parking attendant valeting your car has a bachelor's degree, or even a doctoral degree. 

Richard Vedder at The Chronicle found some frightening statistics on the menial jobs college graduates are taking:

17,000,000 college educated Americans have jobs that they are overqualified for, according to the BLS.

Over 482,000 college-educated Americans are customer service representatives and over 100,000 are maids and janitors; 5,057 of whom have a Ph.D.

More here:

Image: Bureau of Labor Statistics

This data examines the diminishing return of a college education as college graduates.  It also highlights the mismatch between the American worker with the skills needed for tomorrow's jobs.

So are any colleges worth the money?

[hoosierham]

Many employees are demanding college degrees for jobs easily understtod and carried out by a 6th grade “graduate”;the colleges sold America a load of horse manure in the idea that everyone needs ,or can even benefit from , college.

[Iron Munro]

When you pervert the system and cheapen the degree process so “everyone can attend college” and have a degree, the value and utility of a college degree drops.

Couple that with 50 years of asinine political decisions that drove American industry offshore and you end up with exactly what we have.

So far the reaction of the government and the education industry is to double down on the same short sighted policies that first brought on the problem.

When the leftist dream of universal college attendance is eventually realized we will have degreed graduates mowing the lawns of wealthy plumbers, mechanics, carpenters, welders and others who can actually do something and who provide needed skills and services.

[pepperdog]

You are way too logical. It's like anything else, when something becomes a glut on the market there is little demand for it at a high price, or even at a low price in some cases. In the case of excess college degrees, McDonalds doesn't care what kind of degree you have, just how well you can speed a satisfied customer through.

[tillacum]

Well if this is so...they should vote Republican on Tuesday...allow the Republicans to can the laws the muslim/communist cartel in DC has put into place. Then let private business regenerate and these 17,000,000 well educated people can rejoin the work force by using the education they acquired. Some may even begin their own business and hire of a few of the college educated in a position appropriate to their skills. They pay may be lower than the one they had before the downfall of business, but it will give them a better sense of self, and the pay will increase with time. Been there, done that.

[Paddy Irish]

What ever happened to getting a business degree and then opening your own business? Maybe your dad was a plumber and then you went to business school and then opened your own plumbing business. These college kids have a warped sense of what to expect when they get out. Few want to organize, work hard, and sacrifice good times to get to the top. No doubt credit has dried up, but it can be done.

[tillacum]

I personally think everyone who wants a degree should have a fall back. Carpenters, meat cutters, electricians, plumbers etc are always in demand. Right now I need an electrician and doggone can’t find one that has a few minutes to spare for my small job.

[svxdave]

I personally think that no one should get a degree just to get a job. A degree is a by product of learning, the reason that someone goes to college. If someone has a degree and is a “server”, that is just fine if the person is happy and, trust me, you don’t have to have money to be wealthy,

[Prince of Space]

You are so right about Indians taking our jobs...losing mine in 2 weeks as a transcriptionist at a hospital here in Phoenix. Thanks to the EMR requirements of Obamacare and plain old-fashioned greed, medical transcription is officially dead in this country. It's been a good 25 years and I'll miss it.

The Indian company, Focus, a subsidiary of Dictaphone/Nuance, employs home-based MTs....so now the medical records of many Americans can be accessed via PCs in the living rooms of MTs in a 3rd world country. And they're NOT liable under HIPAA privacy laws like American MTs are. Can't wait for the lawsuits to begin!

Mrs. Prince of Space

[hometoroost]

Nothing wrong with doing an honest day’s work providing a service everyone needs.

[Trod Upon]

And the suckers whose fields haven't been hit yet will explain how much better off we all are by having mostly unaccountable foreigners who don't give a shit doing your job: "Well it's cheaper after all...." Remember when being an American meant actually having some regard for your fellow American? Now it's "nah, f*** them, I can get this for $.03 less now. Besides, it will never happen to me." It's going to happen to most of them.

[socal_parrot]

My wife retired at age 49 as the COO of an electronics company. I am currently a VP of marketing. Neither one of us received college degrees. Maybe we should’ve stepped aside for someone more “qualified”.

College can educate you, but it doesn’t necessarily make one intelligent.

[tillacum]

I agree whole heartedly.

[SuperLuminal]

Purely the result of a Fabian-controlled education system accomplishing it's purpose...Brain-dead morons generating more brain-dead morons...

The college educational result of today gives one the equivalent of the old "drop-out-of-school-in-the-6th-grade" status of the 1950's.

[Yaelle]

What jobs are there for liberal arts students besides circular jobs (teaching the crap you learnt back to someone new)? We need more manual employees.

[WebFocus]

Even as a lot of colleg grads cannot find suitable work, here are some professions where there are/will be real shortages.... MOST OF THESE ARE JOB I DON’T THINK AMERICANS WANT TO DO.

SEE HERE:

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/5461744-top-economist-predicts-labor-shortage-in-us-by-2018

---

...a leading economist is now predicting a labor shortage by 2018.

It may sound surprising given the recession, but Barry Bluestone, Dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University projects there will be at least 5 million potential job vacancies in the U.S. and not enough people to fill them within eight years.

“If the baby boom generation retires from the labor force at the same rate and age as current older workers, the baby bust generation that follows will likely be too small to fill many of the projected new jobs,” states Bluestone’s report, After the Recovery: Help Needed - The Coming Labor Shortage and How People in Encore Careers Can Help Solve It.

This scenario could weigh heavily on the U.S. economy in years to come. According to Bluestone, the loss in total output could limit the growth of needed services and cost the economy as much as $3 trillion by 2023.

Workers over 55 will be key to closing the labor gap, notes Bluestone. “Not only will there be jobs for these experienced workers to fill,” Bluestone writes, “but the nation will absolutely need older workers to step up and take them.”

So, where will the jobs be? Bluestone’s research identifies the following 15 jobs that will provide the largest number of potential new encore career opportunities:

1. registered nurses

2. home health aides

3. personal and home care aides

4. nursing aides

5. orderlies and attendants

6. medical assistants

7. licensed practical and vocational nurses

8. medical and health service managers

9. teachers

10. teacher assistants

11. child care workers

12. business operations specialists

13. general and operations managers

14. receptionists and information clerks

15. clergy and social and human service assistants

[stephenjohnbanker]

Probably 50% of kids in college shouldn’t be there. They should be learning a trade, or in tech school.

[Paved Paradise]

Meanwhile, nobody is being taught how to make or fix anything anymore.