Courtesy of Mish.
For those of you who are employed, I have a simple question: Does your job require a college degree?
The reason I ask, is a Gallup poll shows Majority of U.S. Workers Say Job Doesn’t Require a Degree.
Here is the question Gallup asked: Does the type of work you do require a bachelor’s degree from a college or university or some other advanced academic degree?
From Gallup …
Fewer than half of adults employed full or part time in the United States, 43%, say the type of work they do generally requires a bachelor’s or a more advanced degree. Fifty-seven percent say it does not, unchanged from 2005, but down slightly from 61% in 2002.
High Income and College Go Together
There is no real difference between male and female workers’ perceptions of their need for a college degree, and there are only slight differences by age, with middle-aged workers the most likely to say their job requires a degree.
However, there are significant differences by income, with the majority of workers earning $75,000 or more saying a degree is necessary, compared with no more than a third of lower-income workers.
Bottom Line
The majority of high school graduates in the U.S. go straight to college, no doubt believing that a college degree will open career doors and unlock higher lifetime earning potential. Positive expectations about attending college are generally well founded: government statistics show that four-year college graduates will earn roughly double what college nongraduates make over their lifetime — amounting to an additional million dollars.
However, changes in the nation’s economy in the past decade, coupled with a revolution in technology, may be challenging the traditional college bargain. The high tuition and lost-opportunity costs associated with spending four or more years getting a bachelor’s degree may not be as palatable when weighed against a persistently anemic job market.
Cost is the Problem
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