The college grads will have a rough time for a while. They will benefit as baby boomers continue mass retirement. Meanwhile those with no college will still not be able to compete for those jobs.
College IS worth it. Let me clarify. A Bachelor of Science degree is worth it. If your kid just takes Philosophy or Women’s Studies, then no college is not worth it. Graduates from the college of arts are going to struggle for a long time to come.
Graduates from the College of Sciences with a Bachelor of Science, will do just fine in the long run and just need to hang in their in this trying time. I can’t begin to imagine their frustration, and I graduated into the “Reagan recession” and took 1.5 years to finally land a job in Civil Engineering.
If you graduate with a BS degree and hang in their as the baby boomers retire, it is eventually going to pay off.
If you graduate from the college of arts, even McDonalds hires from time to time.
Some of what you say has merit. However, it comes down to individual initiative and what one learns as to whether or not they land a job. I have a daughter who got a degree in music (I worried at the time she selected her major but supported her.) She turned that into a great career in the music publishing industry, writing and editing music oriented magazines at desk jobs (which she still does freelance from home), and now works in music equipment design. It's about casting a wide net for ideas for jobs to support your degree and knowlege. Many kids assume a degree will automatically drop a job at their feet, clueless that they need to persue the unknown jobs that are out there.