Employers plan to hire more new college graduates than they did last year. Finance, accounting and computer and information science majors are in the most demand.
Things have changed
April 8, 2012 by
Median salaries have more than doubled in real dollars since 1940 and the percentage of college graduates has gone from 5 percent of adults to 28 percent.
Wanted: College-educated workers
March 28, 2012 by
Despite the rise in college graduates — 38.5 percent of working-age adults have an associate degree or more – employers will need 23 million more college-educated workers by 2025, predicts a Lumina Foundation study. But does producing more graduates guarantee productivity and prosperity?
Community colleges are “where the workers come from.”
College grads earn 8% to 11% less
March 15, 2012 by
Female college graduates earn 7.6 percent less than they did 10 years ago, while their male counterparts make 11 percent less, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which looked at entry-level wages.
What do you think? asks The Onion.
“It’s not like 2002, when a guy could graduate from a liberal arts college and just watch the money roll in,” says Jenn Serreo.
Unfunny fact: High school-educated men in entry-level jobs have taken a 25 percent earnings hit from 1970 to 2011, reports EPI.
Why some college grads aren’t employable
December 18, 2011 by
Some college graduates aren’t prepared for work, recruiters tell Jeff Selingo. The top students at nearly any college and most students at top colleges are worth interviewing. But a surprising number of applicants “clearly were not ready to go to college in the first place, yet possess a degree.”
“The focus on access and completion has come at a real cost,” one recruiter told me (he didn’t want his company identified because he’s not allowed to speak on its behalf). “We’re encouraging students to go to college who should be considering other options, and then we’re pushing them through once there.”
In the past, college graduates have fared much better than less-educated workers. That may change for average graduates of average colleges with not-very-rigorous degrees. And that’s a large group.
Many graduates write poorly. “It’s clear they’re not learning basic grammar, usage, and style in K-12,” recruiters say.
While many graduates are hard workers, others skated by in college.
The recruiters complained about professors who clearly gave grades that were not deserved, allowed assignments to be skipped, and simply didn’t demand much from their students.
In addition, many young workers feel entitled to a job, recruiters say. They blame “parents obsessed with their kids’ happiness.”
Many employers have cut training and mentoring to save money, the recruiters admit. Employers want to hire well-educated people who are ready to work with minimal support.
Back to college? It’s not easy
December 12, 2011 by
Twenty percent of working-age adults have some college credits but no degree. persuading college dropouts to try again is a key part of the “completion agenda.” But college can be just as hard the second time around, especially if adults try to take classes designed and scheduled for 18- to 22-year-olds.
President Obama’s 2020 goal — the U.S. will be first in the world in college graduates — requires community colleges to graduate many more students. But state budget cuts will make it very difficult to increase the number of graduates, say most state community college directors. Sixteen states have de facto enrollment caps at community colleges.
China cuts majors with jobless grads
November 28, 2011 by
China’s Ministry of Education plans to phase out majors producing unemployable graduates. If less than 60 percent of graduates are employed after two years, the major will be cut back or eliminated.
China has increased the number of university graduates by nearly 150 percent since 2000. But some lack the skills needed by the manufacturing-based economy, notes the Wall Street Journal.
Many university professors in China are unhappy with the Ministry of Education’s move, as it will likely shrink the talent pool needed for various subjects, such as biology, that are critical to the country’s aim of becoming a leader in science and technology but do not currently have a strong market demand, a report in the state-run China Daily report said.
An op-ed in the Beijing News said the policy will encourage universities to fudge employment statistics for graduates.
Official data already shows that the country’s educated jobless, referred to as the “ant tribe,” appear to be decreasing. In 2010, 72% of recent graduates found work, up from 68% in 2009, according to the Ministry of Education.
. . . some universities have already started taking steps to decrease the size of programs that don’t result in paid positions. Enrollment in a Russian program at China’s Shenyang Normal University was cut to 25 students this year from 50 in previous years, according to a report in the China Daily.
If the U.S. government decided to emulate China, what would go? The Journal’s chart of unemployment rates for college graduates lists clinical psychology, fine arts, U.S. history and library science as the majors least likely to lead to employment, but the jobless rates are low by Chinese standards.
How we ruined the Occupy generation
November 16, 2011 by
Oldsters “ruined” the Occupy Wall Street Generation with very bad advice, writes John Cheese on Cracked.com. It starts by telling everyone to go to college to get a good job, implying that the good job is guaranteed so there’s no need to worry about about paying off student loans.
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“A master’s in psychology? Pretty impressive. How would you say that qualifies you to answer the phone?”
In 1950, less than 10 percent of adults had bachelor’s degrees and only half had completed high school, he writes. “College was something that smart kids and people with money did.” (When I was graduated from high school in 1970, it was above-average students and people with some money.) Now a bachelor’s is seen as the bare minimum. College graduates do much better in the workforce than people with only a high school diploma, but there’s no guarantee.
So when you finally take those first steps out of university life and enter the work field, it’s an absolute system shock to find out your $30,000 to $100,000+ bachelor’s degree doesn’t guarantee you a position in your field of study … possibly ever. At least 40 percent of you who get degrees will wind up in jobs that don’t require a degree at all. And the rest will wind up in jobs outside the field they studied.
Cheese adds other steps on the road to ruin, such as: Telling young people they’re too good for manual labor and adding another seven years to adolescence by telling young men it’s OK to live with your parents into your mid-20s.
A UCLA graduate in her mid-20s, working at an entry-level marketing job, told me she’s the envy of her former classmates. One is teaching English overseas; others are working at Starbucks or still seeking that poorly paid dead-end job. UCLA grads with three years at Starbucks believe they’re seen as losers when they apply for entry-level career jobs, she said. Employers prefer shiny new grads. And not working makes you an even bigger loser. These are not slackers with “me studies” degrees from Mediocre College. They are top students whose parents don’t have connections to get them started.
Korea’s worry: too many college grads
October 28, 2011 by
The U.S. trails much of the developed world in young adults with college degrees. South Korea is number one, but 40 percent of new college graduates can’t find jobs. The government is trying to push vocational education.
Also on Community College Spotlight: More unprepared students are enrolling at New York City’s community colleges: 74 percent of city high school graduates require at least one remedial class and 22.6 percent require remediation in reading and writing and math.
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