Posts published on August 20, 2012

Do College Graduates Push High School Grads Out of the Economy?

by Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute

This week, Georgetown’s University’s Center on Education and the Workforce released “Weathering the Economic Storm.” The report makes an intuitive conclusion that the recent “recession hit those with less schooling disproportionately hard.” Data clearly support this conclusion.

But the reason isn’t because they are less educated, per se. The reason is that those with higher levels of education are now taking jobs that were previously sourced by those with high school credentials. So, does a higher education credential give you a better opportunity for employment? Yes, no argument. But not because of their higher education, but rather, because the workforce will take the highest education available for a particular position, regardless of skill set or need.

A larger percentage of college graduates are now working in fields outside their specialty. Traditional jobs once held by high school graduates are now being filled by college graduates who would otherwise be unemployed. READ MORE….