Chart of the Day: Finish High School, Finish College
The chart above displays unemployment rates by education level from 1993 to 2005, and shows the averages over this period on the right side of the chart. It's interesting that there are big differences between a) no high school and high school (3.4% difference in averages), and b) some college and college grads (1.5% difference), and a pretty small difference between high school and some college (0.90%). Bottom Line: In terms of reducing unemployment over one's lifetime, finishing high school and finishing college have big payoffs. Stay in school.
4 Comments:
Very informative. It would have been insightful if the chart could have include how people's employment rates were effected over their lifetime if they had attended a trade school, ie. plumber, electrician, carpenter...
The Masked Millionaire
masked millionaire,
You could use the "some college” category for trade schools. Almost all apprentice trade programs partner with a community college for the related classroom training for the trade because it is more cost-efficient and qualifies the programs for more federal appropriations than starting one of their own. The United States Department of Labor requires apprentice programs to be registered and the related training to be taught by nationally accredited learning institutions.
Those who have bachelor degrees and journeyman cards are the preferred instructors for the community college training, so the increased employability for trade school increases correspondingly with educational attainment as stated on the chart.
It’s indeed a pay-for-knowledge world nowadays. If you don't have some, you better get some.
> It’s indeed a pay-for-knowledge world nowadays. If you don't have some, you better get some.
It has always been a pay-for-knowledge world. It's just getting to be (in some cases, unfortunately) a pay-for-credentials world.
I'll take a man with most of a college degree and 10 years of real world experience over a newly minted college grad just about any day, for any job.
All too many employers want to be given some piece of paper which says "this person passes muster" rather than taking the time to actually learn anything about a person or their backgrounds.
An increasing emphasis on this is just going to produce more and more falsified records.
Me, I'm getting my PhD from Whatsamatta U!
obloodyhell,
You're right. It is a credentials' world. Gotta have 'em. At least the employment problem has been identified—that’s the first step to any problem resolution.
Here’s a personal example:
I quit an HVAC instructor's job because I had a bachelor's degree and the person running the program did not. I was a regular employee at the college due to my credentials, but the other instructor was a provisional employee without a bachelor's degree. Even though he set the program up and had over 30 years’ experience, he had to petition and meet with a board every semester to get a waiver to continue working. Supposedly, provisional employees could only be retained if regular employees who met the educational criteria could not be found.
The other instructor made things difficult for me because I was a threat to him. If a person was removed for any reason except discharge-for-cause, the provisional employees were slated to go first. I found more comfortable surroundings much closer to home. With diesel fuel at almost $5 a gallon, who needs a 60-mile-drive to make less money and get hassled? Not me!
If you think about it: Do you want a doctor who never passed the test to receive his or her medical license for your doctor? Are credentials that important? Like everything else in life, that depends.
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