Effect of Education on Bigger Raises and Better Jobs

This continues our series analyzing current economic and workplace trends

Brad worked 24 years as a successful sales representative. He always provided for his family very well. The economic downturn affected his job. First one company, then a second closed while he sold for them. Suddenly, he felt his lack of a college degree deprived him of work. He applied for jobs only to watch people with less experience but more education get the jobs.

Pew Proposes Education Protects Jobs

The Pew Charitable Trusts recently released a study titled How Much Protection Does a College Degree Afford? The Impact of the Recession on Recent College Graduates. The study provides interesting statistics including:

• “Before the recession, just over half (55%) of young adults with a high school degree (HS) were employed, compared with almost two-thirds (64%) of those with an associate degree (AA) and 7 in 9 (69%) of those with a bachelor’s degree (BA)
• “Job losses during the recession made existing employment gaps even worse”
• “The employment declines for those with HS and AA degrees were 16% and 11%, respectively, compared with 7% for those with a BA degree”
• “Before the recession, BA graduates had more than twice as many college-level jobs as AA graduates and more than four times as many college-level jobs as HS graduates”
• “6% of the HS & AA groups lost college-level jobs compared with only 3% of BA graduates”
• Wages decreased for all education groups, however, the decrease was less pronounced for recent 4-year college graduates.”
• Weekly wages for BA graduates was only 5%
• Weekly wages for AA declined 12% and HS graduates declined 10%

Still Uncertain

The study shared an interesting conclusion

• “Young college graduates are finding it much more difficult to get jobs, are accepting much less desirable positions, and are increasingly ‘camping out’ at home and in schools when they cannot get jobs” are false
• “It is evident that recent college graduates were well-protected against the worst effects of the recession”
• “Decline in training was slightly greater for associate degree holders”

Monday we explore how identifying your motivated skills enhancing your job