WSJ article on value of college degree

[SlitheyTove]

<p>WSJ links don’t remain live for free for long, but the article can be found at a number of papers e.g. [The</a> declining value of your college degree](<a href=“http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/2008/07/17/20080717biz-DegreeValue0717.html]The”>http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/2008/07/17/20080717biz-DegreeValue0717.html)</p>

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College-educated workers are more plentiful, more commoditized and more subject to the downsizings that used to be the purview of blue-collar workers only. What employers want from workers nowadays is more narrow, more abstract and less easily learned in college.</p>

<p>To be sure, the average American with a college diploma still earns about 75 percent more than a worker with a high-school diploma and is less likely to be unemployed. Yet while that so-called college premium is up from 40 percent in 1979, it is little changed from 2001, according to data compiled by Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington think tank.</p>

<p>Most statistics he and other economists use don’t track individual workers over time, but compare annual snapshots of the work force. That said, this trend doesn’t appear due to an influx of lower-paid young workers or falling starting salaries; Mr. Bernstein says when differences in age, race, marital status and place of residence are accounted for, the trend remains the same.</p>

<p>A variety of economic forces are at work here. Globalization and technology have altered the types of skills that earn workers a premium wage; in many cases, those skills aren’t learned in college classrooms. And compared with previous generations, today’s college graduates are far more likely to be competing against educated immigrants and educated workers employed overseas.</p>

<p>The issue isn’t a lack of economic growth, which was solid for most of the 2000s. Rather, it’s that the fruits of growth are flowing largely to “a relatively small group of people who have a particular set of skills and assets that lots of other people don’t,” says Mr. Bernstein. And that “doesn’t necessarily have that much to do with your education.” In short, a college degree is often necessary, but not sufficient, to get a paycheck that beats inflation.

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<p>There’s more, including some anecdotes and a discussion about what professions and skills have been economic winners.</p>