Source: Huffington Post –
WASHINGTON — The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.
A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge.
Young adults with bachelor’s degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs – waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example – and that’s confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.
An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor’s degrees.
Opportunities for college graduates vary widely.
While there’s strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder. Median wages for those with bachelor’s degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.
Categories: Americas, Countries, Crisis, Economics, Education, Employment, North America, Poverty, United States
This has been a continuing trend and not a good one.
I recall, thirty years ago in Bangladesh, we had the same situation. Hundreds of job seekers with Masters degree applied for a single low paying clerical job. Since then, Bangladesh has learned that not everyone needs to dream for a Management job. There were and still are plenty of opportunities in technical and hands-on skilled jobs. I think we need a change in mindset and take in the reality of the demand vs. supply in the job market. For some recent technical positions that I was charged to fill, I interviewed about 40 people. Interestingly, the non resident immigrants or foreign contractors did much better in demonstrating their effectiveness, willingness, technical prowess and flexibility. We have been hearing about Globalization for some time now from the likes of Paul Krugman et al. Whether we like it or not, Globalization will dictate labor force dynamics for the next decade. I hope the aspiring graduates are taking that into their career planning. It is a global competition now, for a fighting resource.