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?

[wastedyears]

This sort-of-but-not-really makes me feel better about not having gone to college.

[meyer]

They might ought to break this down into which degrees the folks working these jobs have. Some degrees are marketable, some are not.

[VanDeKoik]

Maybe that’s what their degree is worth?

A college degree does not equal a natural demand.

[McLynnan]

Exactly, like my friend’s son who is the proud owner of a master’s in Czech languages and studies. Big demand for that in the middle of Texas ; )

[Flavius]

Hey remember when people use to laugh at Russian taxi drivers with rocket science degrees
Welcome to third world yay

[Hojczyk]

College is a joke unless you are taking science and engineering...business and accounting...

[Hojczyk]

I thought only illegals did these jobs...jobs Americans will not do??

[chickadee]

Oh, your comment was so polite, “some degrees are marketable, some are not”. The humanities degrees aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, unless you continue on to PhD and try for a college/university position . . . and there are already thousands and thousands queued up for part time teaching jobs.

[Never on my watch]

Their working. That’s a start. No one is entitled to a career.

Besides, I thought some of these were the jobs Americans wouldn’t do.

[FrankR]

A bachelor's degree is not a written contract guaranteeing anyone a job. The sheepskin is a credential, that's all...the rest is still hard work, common sense, and integrity.

Too many people go to college to get a degree, for the sake of having a degree, then find out as they mature that what they studied is not at all what they want to be doing the rest of their lives.

My son - the math wiz - went to college for three years working toward a degree in actuarial science; but the more he studied and the more he found out about the job, the less he wanted to do it. He changed his degree to computer science and is now a very successful programmer working as a consultant for a major company...and he's very happy with it.

Starting college at 18, many kids think they know what they want to be, but they mature and many change their minds.

Many are happy to be working with their hands and had rather be an auto mechanic or a carpenter...two well-paying jobs that don't require a degree.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Maybe we should rethink the idea that everybody, no matter how academically-challenged, should go to college.

They should take out the loans and everything so that they can continue to be indentured slaves to the federal government, but just dispense with the illusion of giving them an education.

Beer-bust every day!

[GeronL]

too many people are going to college, I guess

[TigerClaws]

Are these some of those ‘saved’ jobs?

[GeronL]

lol.

Now they want to unionize the new nation of hamburger flippers.

[Tax Government]

A college degree does not normally qualify a person for any job. Former students who believe otherwise should file or join lawsuits against universities, claiming misrepresentation of the benefits.

Law school is an option for those of them who take this problem seriously.

[max americana]

Our IT guy is more knowledgeable than the our ex-IT guy who went to a prestigous university. This current employee learned his trade from Youtube videos (of all places) and interning during the summers for free so he could learn valuable lessons in network admin.

[rabscuttle385]

So are any colleges worth the money?

The worth, or value, of a degree is in the eyes of the market.

If you want to get a degree, make sure that it supports your personal goals and mission. Better yet, if you are going to finance the degree through debt, make sure that there's a payoff at the end of the day.

Far too many people bought houses and degrees over the last twenty years without any thought to whether their purchases actually were in line with their personal goals and missions (or their budgets, for that matter). And, much like going shopping without a list can result in buying too much, far too many Americans simply bought too much, particularly with easy credit and subsidies from the various levels of government, which were eagerly chasing after noble social goals like educating more people and making home affordable.

For those in the time who acted responsibly, here's a hat tip to you. As for the rest of us, the hangover will be long and painful.

[dfwgator]

If you want to get a degree, make sure that it supports your personal goals and mission. Better yet, if you are going to finance the degree through debt, make sure that there's a payoff at the end of the day.

Employers are interested in how you financed your education, if you just financed it with loans instead of working part-time, that's a big strike against the applicant.

[Steamburg]

Just think how many of these people would actually have careers if the government stopped screwing small business and allowed Capitalism to flourish. Maybe some of these people might even be interested meaningful degrees. I fear that too many of them have received degrees in social dogma and basket weaving. Is a BA in liberal arts really a degree?