Since COVID, numbers have shown fewer students attending colleges with more looking at trade crafts. The benefits? No expensive student loans and a demand for a growing share of an economy where a college degree is no longer needed.”
As the debate of a degree vs a non-college degree continues, a new study by the Burning Glass Institute finds that half of college graduates work in professions where their college degrees aren’t needed.
Burning Glass (a group that performs data-driven research and practice on the future of work and of workers) tracked more than 10 million people who entered the job market over the past decade. It found that nearly 52% of college degrees weren’t that important when graduates obtained their first job.
The statistics showed from 2012-to 2021, most school graduates in “non-college-level jobs” just one year from leaving college stayed underemployed a decade later.
The numbers show that individuals with a Bachelor’s Degree in a college-level job make up around 90% more than those who only have a high-school diploma. The math drops when it’s compared to an “underemployed” college graduate, who only earns 25% more than a high-school graduate.
Degrees vs Employment
The study found that 47% of those who had degrees in biology and biomedical sciences stayed underemployed for five years after leaving college. Students who majored in business, like marketing and human resources, were expected to be underemployed compared to those with a higher business degree, like accounting or finance.
The research also included graduates who didn’t get an advanced degree after college.
Five years after leaving college, 88% of underemployed graduates stayed in professions like office support, food service, and retail sales.
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