Need for More High School Dropouts

ucbalumnus
Sat, 17 Nov 2012 18:28:16 +0000

mini:

If you look at the BLS report below, Table 2, you’ll see that 18 of the 20 jobs that will see the largest growth 2010-2020 don’t require any college, and, in many cases, not even a high school diploma. Only two require a college degree.



Actually, four of those listed in Table 2 require post-secondary education, three of which require a degree:

Registered Nurse - Associate’s degree
Postsecondary Teachers - Doctoral or professional degree
Nursing Aides, Orderlies, and Attendants - Postsecondary non-degree award
Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education - Bachelor’s degree + Internship/residency

However, if you scroll down to [Chart 7](Home : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), you will see that percent change in employment by education category is projected to be for 2010-2020:

+20% Doctoral or professional degree
+22% Master’s degree
+17% Bachelor’s degree
+18% Associate’s degree
+17% Postsecondary non-degree award
+18% Some college, no degree
+12% High school diploma or equivalent
+14% Less than high school

[Chart 8](Home : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) does indicate that the largest absolute number of jobs created is in the latter two categories of jobs. However, the supply of workers for those categories of jobs is large (and includes those with greater educational attainment), so pay levels remain low.

Adding up the numbers indicates that growth in job requiring some postsecondary education is about 37% of the total job growth.