Unemployment rate-

We often see unemployment rates listed for different sub-groups (women, African-Americans, Nevadans, etc..). I came accross an article which listed the rate for college graduates. My guess would have been off... I'll post the answer later... If you guess do so without using our friend the internet...

4.4%

QUITE a difference from those that didn't get that parchment.....

Quote: SOOPOO

4.4%

QUITE a difference from those that didn't get that parchment.....

I happen to be a 65 year old working college graduate. Was I counted? How about a 90 year old non-working college graduate? Are they unemployed? Lot's of questions I don't know so 4.4% means nothing to me.

Quote: dm

I happen to be a 65 year old working college graduate. Was I counted? How about a 90 year old non-working college graduate? Are they unemployed? Lot's of questions I don't know so 4.4% means nothing to me.

It only really means something when compared to unemployment rates of non college graduates which is 3 to 4 times higher. Exactly who is included and who isn't would be the same for college and non college graduates.

The unemployment rate for new grads is much higher than historic averages. Keep in mind too that there can be a big difference between employed and under-employed.
One of the things that is most interesting is the fact that the unemployment rate usually is the highest when the economy is actually in the beginnings of an upswing. The reason being that unemployment rates are derived from surveys. If they call you and you say you are not working and not actively looking for work you are not counted as unemployed. As the economy starts to improve people often begin looking fir jobs again and then are considered unemployed. BTW the US is currently at a 3yr high for job openings.

The thing I dislike about that college educated stat is the fact that the myth gets put out there that if you have a degree you will earn significantly more money. I think too many people are going to college these days. In many cases you have a lot of dumb-asses wasting govt. grant and loan money. College is a big business with inflation rates at universities outpacing pretty much everything else. I feel very sorry for the kid who takes loan money to attend some B.S online "education connection" school. Those A-holes are preying on a vulnerable demographic and doing so ultimately at the expense of the US taxpayer.

I went to boarding school and we had about 50% international students. A kid in my class was from Korea, graduated with an average grade of 95.3% and as a national merit finalist... the reason he was attending a US boarding school, he wasn't smart enough to be in a college "destined" high school in Korea.

Quote: Scotty71

The thing I dislike about that college educated stat is the fact that the myth gets put out there that if you have a degree you will earn significantly more money. I think too many people are going to college these days. In many cases you have a lot of dumb-asses wasting govt. grant and loan money. College is a big business with inflation rates at universities outpacing pretty much everything else. I feel very sorry for the kid who takes loan money to attend some B.S online "education connection" school. Those A-holes are preying on a vulnerable demographic and doing so ultimately at the expense of the US taxpayer.

I can't agree more that too many people go to college. I transferred to a 4 year school and lived in the dorm. I swear half of the people you saw in the fall never made it back for spring. Saw one dude we knew selling junk door to door when he came in my office. One decided he would rather smoke dope and just stopped going to class. HS friend just stopped going. I call it the "13th Grade" phenomenon. IOW, people have no idea what they "want to do" so they just go back to school in the fall. If I had my way, grants and loans would be very biased (say 80%) to people in years 3 and 4 with freshmen expected to pay most of their fare upfornt. This way they more likely see thier own skin in the game right away and don't end up being a crybaby in a tent at OWS because their degree is not in a marketable field. (side note: I still wonder what the unemployment rate is for anyone with a major that has "studies" in the title.)

Quote: AZDuffman

I can't agree more that too many people go to college.

And I can't agree more with you agreeing more. I was a total 13th grader. Had no direction or guidance, so my college went from higher learning to Pokemon mornings and Goldeneye nights, with a bunch of weed smoke in between (all on my own dime, if it helps). But even for those who applied themselves for the 4-5 years, I don't see the point. There are <50% of them that even use their degree, and of those that use it, I don't know of one who couldn't have had their current job with one or two courses, or introductory experience, or just working their way up. Now we all fall in basically the same pay grade, but they have many tens of thousands of dollars in school debt, whereas I'll already have my house paid off in 14 years.

Vocational schools seem to have it right. If you want to be X, you go and learn X, and come out and get a job doing X. College shouldn't be a vocational school, but it should be more like one.

Doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer, actuary, nurse, entomologist(Son of SOOPOO), etc.. all require a college degree. So do NUMEROUS entry level jobs that the degree is not really needed for, but the employers won't consider you without it.

Quote: SOOPOO

Doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer, actuary, nurse, entomologist(Son of SOOPOO), etc.. all require a college degree. So do NUMEROUS entry level jobs that the degree is not really needed for, but the employers won't consider you without it.

Teachers used to get by with a 2 year course 50 years ago and I don't see the improvement in education now that they have 4 or more years, only increased wage demands. Some high school courses do require the education but none at the lower grades.

The only reason many employers ask for the college degree is because they can with the number of grads we are turning out.

What is we need to remember is that society subdizes each and every college grad and often does not get any return on that investment.

Quote: Face

But even for those who applied themselves for the 4-5 years, I don't see the point. There are <50% of them that even use their degree, and of those that use it, I don't know of one who couldn't have had their current job with one or two courses, or introductory experience, or just working their way up. Now we all fall in basically the same pay grade, but they have many tens of thousands of dollars in school debt, whereas I'll already have my house paid off in 14 years.

Not sure on this part. I used to have a management job and I "used" my degree fairly often. Now, I used small bits and bobs here and there, but in the end Iused plenty of it. I had assistant managers who did not have 4 year degrees and there was always a huge difference in their intuitiveness to things. You could plug them into the job and tell them "x" needed to be done and they were intelligent enough to get it done. They could handle customer complaint after customer complaint. But to step back and figure how to stop those complaints from coming in the first place they were just not as good at that. I had to drag several kicking and screaming into a meeting at various times to show them to take a breath and dig in and fix the problem, no matter what it was. (95%+ of the time it was failure to plan or poor employees we had at the time.)

OTOH, is that 50% of people with degrees based on just me and that job? These days I find myself saying screw moving up and would rather hustle some extra work to make up the 10-20% extra I'd get with a promotion and not have to deal with one personal crisis after another of the people you end up having report to you.