Hey, Graduates: Good Jobs Exist With or Without 4-Year Degree
About three million American university graduates will enter the job market this year. And with unemployment currently at a 10-year low, it's a good time to be graduating, says Nicole Smith, chief economist at Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW).
"We are at one of the lowest unemployment rates we've had since May of 2007, so what that means for the graduating class of 2017 is that the likelihood of getting a job is really, really good," she said.
The U.S. Labor Department says unemployment for those with a four-year bachelor's degree or higher is 2.5 percent, compared to the overall jobless rate of 4.5 percent. For those with a high school diploma or less, the average unemployment rate is 6.8 percent.
Demand for graduates is particularly strong in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
However, Smith says, a four-year degree is not necessary to compete in today's economy.
"There are about 28 million jobs or so in the U.S. economy that are good-paying jobs; that are high-skilled jobs for people without a B.A," she said.
While higher learning can give new workers the upper hand, Smith says almost a third of students with bachelor's degrees are under-unemployed.
A survey of the hottest employment sectors in 2017 shows some of the fastest-growing fields don't require a four-year degree.
What is clear is that jobs that fueled the economy three or four decades ago are not the same jobs driving the economy today. In the 1970s, manufacturing accounted for nearly two of every five jobs; today, those manufacturing jobs account for fewer than one in 10.
Today's job market also differs from the past because rapid technological and societal change demands a commitment to life-long learning.
Participating in today's economy also means older and newer workers must be willing to move where the jobs are. Demand for workers is greatest where local economies are dynamic and where populations are growing.
