I am far from an economist, in fact, I got a B in that class. But, I read articles on a pretty frequent basis saying that the recession is over (1). Yet, I look around and see college graduates struggling for jobs. I am a strong believer in higher education and the benefits that it provides. So, what are the facts? I did some research on my own to try and track down the statistics.
Let’s look at overall employment, in March 2009 (somewhere in the middle of the recession, according to ‘experts’) unemployment hovered at a little below 9%, currently—that figure is at…8.8%(2). This unemployment level is the highest it has been in almost 30 years (3) College graduate unemployment is at 5% (4), though much lower than the national average, is still a troubling statistic. One in every twenty students, who could have paid up to $35,000 per year in fees and tuition costs, will be without work once they enter the ‘real world’ (as a note, college tuition fees are going up an average of 5.9% a year). And the final straw? Starting salary for college graduates fell by almost $400 in the last year(5).
This is a crucial turning point in the fact that very little has gotten better since the housing crisis occurred (some experts even trace back the issue to December 2007). But the issue is not what started the crisis, but rather what has been done to fix it. Unfortunately, the numbers paint a bleak picture for degree-holding students. This begs the question—what has been done to help jobs in the last 3 years? Apparently very little, and still they want to tell us that the ‘recession is over.’
(1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/20/the-recession-is-over-say_n_731450.html
(2)http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
(3) ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aat1.txt
(4) http://www.bls.gov/news.release/hsgec.nr0.htm
(5) http://www.ehow.com/facts_7298687_average-starting-salary-college-graduate.html
Let’s look at overall employment, in March 2009 (somewhere in the middle of the recession, according to ‘experts’) unemployment hovered at a little below 9%, currently—that figure is at…8.8%(2). This unemployment level is the highest it has been in almost 30 years (3) College graduate unemployment is at 5% (4), though much lower than the national average, is still a troubling statistic. One in every twenty students, who could have paid up to $35,000 per year in fees and tuition costs, will be without work once they enter the ‘real world’ (as a note, college tuition fees are going up an average of 5.9% a year). And the final straw? Starting salary for college graduates fell by almost $400 in the last year(5).
This is a crucial turning point in the fact that very little has gotten better since the housing crisis occurred (some experts even trace back the issue to December 2007). But the issue is not what started the crisis, but rather what has been done to fix it. Unfortunately, the numbers paint a bleak picture for degree-holding students. This begs the question—what has been done to help jobs in the last 3 years? Apparently very little, and still they want to tell us that the ‘recession is over.’
(1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/20/the-recession-is-over-say_n_731450.html
(2)http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
(3) ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aat1.txt
(4) http://www.bls.gov/news.release/hsgec.nr0.htm
(5) http://www.ehow.com/facts_7298687_average-starting-salary-college-graduate.html
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