Monday, November 24, 2014

Work Smarter!

There are now more than 50 million people aged 25 years and up in the civilian labor force with a college degree or higher.

How much is the "or higher" part? The following chart shows the 12-month moving average of the percentage of college graduates who have more than a bachelor's degree (in the civilian labor force and are aged 25 years and up).


Click to enlarge.

As seen here, there were 12.4 million "or higher" in 2000. That number has grown to 18.7 million today.

My worry is that we seem determined to create very highly educated and very highly indebted coffee shop baristas. Perhaps I'm just imagining things.

March 27, 2013
Why a BA is Now a Ticket to A Job in a Coffee Shop

A new paper from Paul Beaudry, David Green, and Benjamin Sand argues that these worried kids--and their worried parents--are not just imagining things. The phenomenon is all too real. Skilled workers with higher degrees are increasingly ending up in lower-skilled jobs that don't really require a degree--and in the process, they're pushing unskilled workers out of the labor force altogether.



This whole economy is being Spackler'd. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. Sigh.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

6 comments:

  1. Re: Perhaps I'm just imagining things.

    You lack optimism. If you were more optimistic a solution would appear (I think Buddha said something like this).

    For example: Those working on "Student Loan Forgiveness" are optimists. Student Loan Forgiveness would result in highly-educated debt-free baristas. See how this works?

    ReplyDelete
  2. A highly educated workforce and the only jobs available are
    dumbed down, unless of course the job is offered only to a
    green card holder . It's amazing how much power HR has now
    much time is spent to avoid the best candidates.
    Sporkfed

    ReplyDelete
  3. I shudder to think of the "bitterness" some PhD might decide to put in my latté.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous,

    Student Loan Forgiveness would result in highly-educated debt-free baristas. See how this works?

    Yes! I think I finally see the light. The more government forgives us the more we will forgive government! I can already feel my congressional approval rating beginning to rise! Hahaha! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sporkfed,

    Foreign workers have an innate productivity miracle skill set that most Americans do not possess.

    October 25, 2014
    US technology firm fined for underpaying Indian workers

    While assigned to the project, some of the Indian workers logged as many as 122 hours in a week without being paid overtime. As result, they received as little as $1.21 per hour.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rob Dawg,

    I shudder to think of the "bitterness" some PhD might decide to put in my latté.

    If it tastes a bit nutty, you've already lost the battle, lol. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete