unemployed college grads surpass that of high school dropouts

[VV o n g B a]

http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_archive_03172004

the unemployment RATE of college grads is still lower, but the absolute numbers are still troubling.

[Craig]

Time to go back to graduate school ;-)

[John0101]

the study still shows that it's much better to have a college degree.

[yoMAMA]

pretty soon, you'll need a phd just to get a job.......

[John0101]

Ok, I did some number crunching... I rounded off some numbers.

Now: (Jan 2004)
College graduate - 40 million total grads in workforce, 3% unemployment.
High School dropouts - 12.5 million total HS dropouts in workforce, 8.2% unemployment

Then: 12 years ago (Jan 1992)
College graduate - 27.3 million total grads in workforce, 3% unemployment
High School dropouts - 13.6million total HS dropouts in workforce, 11% umemployment.

Still looks good to be a college grad, over the last 12 years the economy added 12.7 million college grads in the workforce and kept around 3% unemployment. What this really shows is that less people are dropping out of high school and demand for cheaper labor is growing while the demand for college grad has been pretty consistent for the past 12 years.

[ellsworth81]

lets not forget the cost of tuition ....

and i think wages might have to change as countries like india will have ppl willing to take less pay ...

[Craig]

lets not forget the cost of tuition ....

and i think wages might have to change as countries like india will have ppl willing to take less pay ...You didn't have to go to Ann Arbor ...

As far as wages changing, ... yes they will change (and not for the better) ... However, the cost of living in America will still be going up.

[John0101]

As far as wages changing, ... yes they will change (and not for the better) ... However, the cost of living in America will still be going up.

I totally agree, wages are inversely related to unemployment. Wages are high and unemployment is low. Unemployment is high and wages are low. The longer term trend for wages in the U.S. is unclear (but if your a neoclassical economist you'll say that in the long run it's determined by the market and any lower or high price right now will correct itself to equilibrum aka full employment in the long run and all of this is a structural adjustment).

But I have feeling your right, I remember one of my teachers saying that real wages in the U.S. has actually declined to pre 1970 levels.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Blame the colleges for using college counselors in the public schools to viciously subtly demean manual labour. As a result, every idiot feels he has to go study Political Science or Comparative Lit in order to get a job in an office or a store where he of course uses that college education every day..

Also blame big union bosses for pushing unskilled immigration to increase their membership base and power, at the expense of their own members, thus promoting the idea that native born Americans shouldn't have to stoop down to doing manual labor, we can import little brown servants to do it for us.

[Shogun Empress]

What some college grads forget is that employment is all about selling yourself. If your not good at it then you won't get a job. It's that simple.