Posted under Education
College graduates this spring are entering into a terrible job market this spring, many with degrees that may not mean much when it comes to finding that well-paying job that will provide the money to get them out of debt.
This situation is finally waking up many to the realization that perhaps there are too many kids in college and that the emphasis that was put on kids getting degrees or spending on education for the past 30 years or so has led to a world of college graduates working as shift manager at a big-box store.
The linked article made this very good point:
“Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder blames the cultural notion of “credential inflation” for the stream of unqualified students into four-year colleges. His research has found that the number of new jobs requiring college degrees is less than number of college graduates.
Vedder’s work also yielded something surprising: The more money states spend on higher education, the less the economy grows — the reverse of long-held assumptions.
“If people want to go out and get a master’s degree in history and then cut down trees for a living, that’s fine,” he said, citing an example from a recent encounter with a worker. “But I don’t think the public should be subsidizing it.”
No they shouldn’t. And if U.S. wants to revive its industrial economy, it’s going to need m0re trained engineers, millwrites and welders than MBA because persons holding those jobs are in their 60s and want to retire but can’t because their are hardly any young persons in such fields because they’re all off college vying for MBAs and English majors to land that great paying job. The problem is, a lot of good paying jobs go unfilled chasing jobs that are becoming more scarce now thanks to globalization and technology.
What the Great Recession has exposed is not only a house-of-cards economy built on debt and credit, but also one out of wack in terms of priorities and needs.