

In 2007, 51% of college students graduated with a job. In 2009, it's 19.7%. - Alex3917
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=7636561

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climber
Why is this surprising? Why should college degree imply ability to find a job?
Alot of my classmates appear to do little more than drink + party. I know for
a fact that I would not hire them. Why would others?

If anything this seems to show that the general market has finally started
realizing how worthless a college degree is.

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callmeed
Umm, not sure about that ... I'm not saying college kids don't party too much
or that degrees aren't worthless to some degree.

But I think it's clear that this statistic shows that there's more competition
for fewer jobs.

At the very least, a college degree isn't worthless _if it's required_ to
enter the field you wish to work in. Browse Monster.com and see how many
finance and/or engineering jobs don't require a college degree.

From your tone, I'm gathering you have problems with people who equate a
college degree with skills/ability ... you're more than welcome to feel that
way, but I don't think you're proving such a consensus has caused the drop in
graduates w/ jobs.

signed,

A college dropout

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nostrademons
A lot of advertisements claim to require a college degree even if the company
is perfectly willing to hire qualified applicants without one. They do this to
cut down the number of applications they have to wade through. The type of
dropout that they're actually willing to hire will probably apply anyway,
regardless of what the ad says, and it weeds out a lot of chaff that isn't
qualified and is just looking for a job, any job.

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stanleydrew
Part of the problem is that too many people are going to college. (Why does a
bank teller need a college degree?) And then when they have a degree they
expect a job that pays very well and offers full benefits. There are jobs for
college graduates, but they may not be "dream jobs."

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antidaily
Not exactly a great time to be a blue collar worker either.

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stanleydrew
Certainly true. Capitalism has yet to find an efficient way to reallocate
human capital despite its obvious success at allocating other resources. It's
(relatively) easy to make a rational decision to quit investing in oil in
favor of biotech if you think that industry will perform better. But it's hard
to say to workers who've spent their entire lives developing skills particular
to an industry that they should just go and find a job in an industry that
needs more workers. Retraining is hard. Relocating is hard. People are a lot
less mobile than capital. Tearing down restrictions on immigration is one way
to make people more mobile thereby allowing for more efficient allocation of
human resources.

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tokenadult
_Capitalism has yet to find an efficient way to reallocate human capital_

Has something else found that efficient way?

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stanleydrew
No, and I didn't mean to suggest that something else had.

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ivankirigin
Hmm, I'm not sure I believe that. At least, the statistic is designed to be
alarming. The unemployment rate for those with a bachelors degree hovers
between 2 and 4% - over decades.

<http://verifiable.com/charts/1359>

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CalmQuiet
Thanks for the useful perspective provided by that chart.

To set the scene for the original story: It's from abcnews (i.e., =/= in depth
analysis); it cites a few _examples_ ; rather than documenting any _extended
period without a job_ it discusses graduates who did not have jobs _already
secured upon graduation_ ; it quotes complaints that people were not able to
get jobs of their first choice; it is from abcnews' _business_ section: and so
may be seeking to discuss the increasing difficulties of people with
traditional business degrees looking for traditional business/money-management
jobs at a time when banks are being shuttered.

Conclusion: headline and story are link-bait journalism (one "field" that may
still have openings ;).

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jlees
Well, if the guy in the article is looking at funds and banking no wonder he
doesn't have a job! One has to look where the jobs are, not where they aren't.

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dataman85
Where are the jobs for college grads who are not CS majors?

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endtime
Pharmaceuticals if you did chemistry. And I'm sure EE people don't have a hard
time finding work.

Or do you mean people who major in things like classics and French? I guess
they can be...teachers. Of people who study classics and French and will be
able to go on and become...teachers.

I think it's important for techies to get a little exposure to humanities
during their undergrad degrees, but I don't really see the point of spending
four years studying only humanities.

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skermes
Or they could be translators. They could teach their native language to people
whose native language is the one they've learned. They could end up as authors
or writing the marketing copy to sell your software in France or on any number
of non-self-referential career paths. There are useful places in this world
for people who didn't major in applied sciences, too.

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acgourley
I'd like to see this same statistic by college tier. Or at least ensure its
from a static set of colleges in both data points.

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norswap
What about computer science specifically ? In Belgium, we're at 100% of cs
students getting a job, most often even before they graduated (they get
employed before-hand).

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gaius
I hear the Marines are looking for a few good men.

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TriinT
You male chauvinist pig!! Uncle Sam's Misguided Children also recruits women,
ya know? ;-)

