SPOTLIGHT: The role of college degrees in today's labor market
May 2023
SPOTLIGHT: The role of college degrees in today's labor market (May 2023)
56% of Americans say a four-year college degree “isn't worth the cost,” according to a recent WSJ survey.
Skepticism about the value of a college degree is strongest among young Americans ages 18 to 34.
Confidence has also fallen significantly among women. Just 44% of women have confidence in the value of a college degree, compared to 54% in 2017.
42% of people with college degrees say it “wasn’t worth it.”
41% of US adults said in 2022 that graduating from college was “very” or “extremely” important. 27% said it’s “somewhat important.” 30% said it’s “not very” or “not at all” important.
Student debt in the US has hit $1.7 trillion, which experts say has contributed significantly to undermining confidence in the value of a degree.
Read more via Wall Street Journal, Associated Press-NORC, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Despite headlines about employers loosening degree requirements, new research from the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research indicates that employers have not actually “stepped up their hiring of non-degreed job applicants.”
The wage index of newly hired workers with a high school degree or some college increased in March by 1% compared to a “similar group of hires at the start of the health crisis,” according to Upjohn.
However, a “similar occupation and wage index rose 2.2% for new hires with a bachelor’s degree and 5.4% for those with a graduate degree.”
According to Upjohn, “if high school grads were leaving blue-collar jobs for higher-paying white-collar positions in large numbers, they should be reaping larger, not smaller, pay increases than college grads.”
High school graduates are seeing “some increased opportunities,” but the change is not significant, Upjohn reports.
“On the surface, it looks like they’re being more open, but if you look at who’s actually getting hired, I’m not actually seeing it.”
Read more via USA Today, Upjohn
Higher education is being reshaped, according to experts, who say the number of students majoring in tech is surging while the number majoring in the humanities is falling fast.
According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the number of US students pursuing four-year computer and information sciences degrees increased 34% from 2017 to 2022.
Meanwhile, the number of English majors fell 23% over the same period, with history majors falling 12%.
At the University of Maryland, arts and humanities outnumbered computer science majors by 4 to 1 as recently as 2010. Now, “the university counts about 2,400 students majoring in arts and humanities — a collection of disciplines that fill an entire college — and about 3,300 in computer science.” The university is looking to find majors that “bridge technology and humanities as departments.”
Some schools are taking “radical steps.” Marymount University in Virginia and St. Mary’s University of Minnesota are phasing out history and English majors.
Read more via Washington Post, College Scorecard
Governors across the US are increasingly opening up state jobs to candidates who don’t have a college degree. Since March 2022, when Maryland became the first state to loosen degree requirements for state workers, many other governors have made similar announcements.
Highlights of state changes to degree requirements:
Maryland: In March 2022, Governor Larry Hogan announced the state would be “dropping the four-year college degree requirement from many state jobs.” Hogan’s announcement was the first such announcement by any governor, and his administration said the decision would “help fill government positions left vacant during the pandemic.” Hogan said nearly half of the 38,000 positions in Maryland state government “could be performed by qualified candidates without four-year degrees.”
New Jersey: In April, Governor Phil Murphy directed New Jersey’s Civil Service Commission to “spend six months identifying positions that currently require a college degree and figuring out if skills or work experience could be used as hiring criteria in place of formal education.”
North Carolina: In March, Governor Roy Cooper issued an executive order directing his state’s Office of State Human Resources to “take a series of steps to help more people with relevant work experience and skills to get state jobs without an academic degree.”
Pennsylvania: Governor Josh Shapiro’s first executive order was to make “tens of thousands of state-government jobs open to people without college degrees.” Shapiro’s order eliminated the four-year degree requirement for 92% of state government jobs, or 65,000 roles.
South Dakota: Governor Kristi Noem announced in April she was “looking to expand the pool of roles in state government open to those without a four-year college degree.” Noem signed an executive order “instructing the Bureau of Human Resources to ‘review and consider’ whether the duties of any current or future positions under the state’s executive branch require a four-year college degree, paving the way for those hiring to consider other relevant experiences.”
Utah: In December 2022, Governor Spencer Cox launched a “skills-first hiring initiative” that eliminated the four-year degree requirement for many state government jobs, including jobs in IT and health services.
Read more via Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, ABC4, Fortune, NPR, NC.gov, The Hill
According to a new survey from Multiverse, most young adults think workplace training is crucial. They also say they’re not getting enough of it.
72% of young adults say they believe college degrees do not equip them with everything needed for their careers.
49% of young adults say college degree programs disregard “at least some of the key skills needed for today's workforce.”
66% of young adults who have degrees say “workplace training is most important for a successful career,” and that “it's also an element that's noticeably missing from their curriculums.”
50% of young adults say a college degree “isn't worth the cost.”
76% of young adults say they “would skip college if their dream job was attainable post-high school.”
"While the majority of American adults still see a degree as necessary, they know it's not sufficient to prepare them for a great career … There needs to be alternative career paths that prepare people for work without the debt while meeting the ever evolving needs of employers. In a world where the status quo is a college education, our research shows that young adults are hungry for real world experience that will better equip them for thriving careers in today's most in-demand skills."
Read more via Multiverse
