Posted on 04/24/2012 3:25:30 PM PDT by tobyhill
The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.
A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge.
Young adults with bachelor’s degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that’s confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.
An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor’s degrees.
Opportunities for college graduates vary widely.
While there’s strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder. Median wages for those with bachelor’s degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.
Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor’s degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.
“I don’t even know what I’m looking for,’’ says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.boston.com ...
Is your cliff half empty or half full?
Your kid's a slacker until he can do that, and get a perfect attendance award for 40 years in the same company. But, some kids do follow that track easily. To a degree it depends on what they can study in versus what they'd like to study. A friend of mine once pointed out that there are two kinds of courses ~ those where you read one book 70 times and the other where you read 70 books once.
Hey Michael, be an original — write a novel titled “War and Peace”.
It’ll keep you busy for awhile.
The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.
Even McDonalds will be requiring a higher degree than that soon considering the path we’re on.
Most of my landscape employees have higher degrees and I’m tightening up minimum requirements again. How about 3 languages and business related degrees?
Just checking.
12 years of government grammer school.
+ 4 years of partially government funded college .
And at least half of these graduates can’t get a job after 16 years of training. What more proof does anyone need that government/socialism doesn’t work?
Thankfully Obama’s support among young people is waning......http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/24/2022445/youth-vote-still-favors-obama.html
Yes, there was a law program and the poli-sci folks that I knew were the bottom of the barrel.
Why does your choice of career make my child a “slacker”? There are careers that allow for more than three weeks vacation. As for your “perfect attendance” record, I am pleased to know that you are fortunate enough to be a very hearty and healthy human being. As my son is still in his twenties, and a few weeks from getting his bachelors in Neuroscience, I suppose only time will tell if he is able to live up to the stellar standards that you have achieved.
Thank goodness that his chosen field will allow him many opportunities. Thank goodness that he has the intellect to pursue and achieve such a difficult degree. Meanwhile he is employed, and has no intention of leaving that job until he has a nice offer. Thank goodness he is a sensible and hard working young man.
I am quite satisfied.
Just teasing. Your kid is already an “over achiever”.
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