Half of college graduates are overqualified for their jobs

[jamesbond]

Nearly half of working Americans with college degrees are in jobs for which they're overqualified, a new study out Monday suggests.

The study, released by the non-profit Center for College Affordability and Productivity, says the trend is likely to continue for newly minted college graduates over the next decade.

"It is almost the new normal," says lead author Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist and founder of the center, based in Washington.

The number of Americans whose highest academic degree was a bachelor's grew 25% to 41 million from 2002 to 2012, statistics released last week from the U.S. Census Bureau show.

Vedder, whose study is based on 2010 Labor Department data, says the problem is the stock of college graduates in the workforce (41.7 million) in 2010 was larger than the number of jobs requiring a college degree (28.6 million).

That, he says, helps explain why 15% of taxi drivers in 2010 had bachelor's degrees vs. 1% in 1970. Among retail sales clerks, 25% had a bachelor's degree in 2010. Less than 5% did in 1970.

"There are going to be an awful lot of disappointed people because a lot of them are going to end up as janitors," Vedder says. In 2010, 5% of janitors, 115,520 workers, had bachelor's degrees, his data show.

You can read the full article here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... s/1868817/

This is further proof that college is a waste of time and money. Your better off going out into the workforce after high school and gaining work experience than spending ten's of thousands of dollars (maybe even a hundred thousand dollars or more) to get a degree that will probably be worthless.

Companies want people with work experience, not people with college degrees and no work experience!

Work experience trumps a college degree every time!

I know a guy who graduated with an MBA (and he graduated on the honor roll) and now he is working at a call center! I know people who have bachelors degrees who are now working in retail stores!

I went to college and it did absolutely nothing for my career. I have a bachelors degree in psychology and the degree is absolutely worthless (as are millions of other college degrees).

[Andrewww]

True, college degrees are becoming obsolete because more and more people have them.

There are really 2 solutions to this problem:

-schools should raise the requirements of getting a diploma by having harder exams
-schools should actively help students land internships and they should limit the amount of students they receive based on how many job opportunities are available

That way people who don't get in will start working instead of wasting their time getting a diploma that has no use.

[Ghost]

.

[abcdavid01]

Yeah, college sucks. They put the bar way too low. I went for three semesters to this college by my house and it was easier than my high school. This wasn't a community college either, but Kean University in Jersey, which is like the premier teacher's college for the state. Means public school teachers are a bunch of morons too. Thank God I paid for none of it. Living with parents, no debt, no expenses, couple thousand in the bank. Trying to get passive income going so I can travel and GTFO of America. Yup.

[Ghost]

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[Teal Lantern]

Nearly half of working Americans with college degrees are in jobs for which they're overqualified, a new study out Monday suggests.

The number of Americans whose highest academic degree was a bachelor's grew 25% to 41 million from 2002 to 2012, statistics released last week from the U.S. Census Bureau show.

So ... this means Cupcake won't screw up my take-out order, right?

[abcdavid01]

Yeah, college sucks. They put the bar way too low. I went for three semesters to this college by my house and it was easier than my high school. This wasn't a community college either, but Kean University in Jersey, which is like the premier teacher's college for the state. Means public school teachers are a bunch of morons too. Thank God I paid for none of it. Living with parents, no debt, no expenses, couple thousand in the bank. Trying to get passive income going so I can travel and GTFO of America. Yup.

A good 95-99% of those who want to be schoolteachers do it out of being deluded ("it's for the children!") and ignorant. They are often good little drones who did well in school themselves and are thus good at perpetuating the system of conformity, brainwashing, and crushing children's natural curiosity and desire to learn. The remaining percent are quite intelligent but may simply be ignorant about what the system really is and what it is for.

I have an education degree. I'm making one of the best uses of it - going abroad to teach English.

Oh absolutely. The best teachers I had in school were both fired for essentially being too smart. I'm really horrified by people like my sister who's a high school history teacher and a card-carrying Feminist.

[Excalibur]

Companies want people with work experience, not people with college degrees and no work experience!

Work experience trumps a college degree every time!

I agree with you on that, but I would ask you: If companies want people with work experience, how is someone without work experience going to accumulate work experience first place? It's a catch-22. To obtain new work experience, you need to have some work experience already, and so forth.

Moreover: Ceteris Paribus, if a company has the choice between someone without work experience from high school and from college, which one do you think will they hire more likely? And now answer the same question changed into "with work experience..."

So in the end, the worthless college degrees are becoming the standard, unfortunately. If you only have a high school degree, you need to have very good contacts to secure a chance for a good job. Contacts matter to 90% I would say... But we have again a catch-22 here.

[Cornfed]

I agree with you on that, but I would ask you: If companies want people with work experience, how is someone without work experience going to accumulate work experience first place? It's a catch-22. To obtain new work experience, you need to have some work experience already, and so forth.

So the answer for most young men is that they won't and they can't and so are screwed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duFOXdTC4gY

[momopi]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/busin ... wanted=all

"The college degree is becoming the new high school diploma: the new minimum requirement, albeit an expensive one, for getting even the lowest-level job."