I have documented how our corrupt society eats its own young, most recently in The College Degree Scam Goes Ballistic. I'm not going to rehash that material today, but the New York Times just added fuel to the fire in Many With New College Degree Find the Job Market Humbling.
The individual stories are familiar. The chemistry major tending bar. The classics major answering phones. The Italian studies major sweeping aisles at Wal-Mart...
Employment rates for new college graduates have fallen sharply in the last two years, as have starting salaries for those who can find work.
What’s more, only half of the jobs landed by these new graduates even require a college degree, reviving debates about whether higher education is “worth it” after all.
“I have friends with the same degree as me, from a worse school, but because of who they knew or when they happened to graduate, they’re in much better jobs,” said Kyle Bishop, 23, a 2009 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh who has spent the last two years waiting tables, delivering beer, working at a bookstore and entering data. “It’s more about luck than anything else.”
The median starting salary for students graduating from four-year colleges in 2009 and 2010 was $27,000, down from $30,000 for those who entered the work force in 2006 to 2008, according to a study released on Wednesday by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. That is a decline of 10 percent, even before taking inflation into account.
Of course, these are the lucky ones — the graduates who found a job. Among the members of the class of 2010, just 56 percent had held at least one job by this spring, when the survey was conducted. That compares with 90 percent of graduates from the classes of 2006 and 2007. (Some have gone for further education or opted out of the labor force, while many are still pounding the pavement.)
Ah, Kyle Bishop has used the magic word—Luck. Whether it's your personal connections, birth circumstances, the advantages (or not) of your upbringing, the workings of blind, dumb chance, it's now luck that makes the magic happen (or not) for young college graduates trying to make their way in the world. And the reason is simple: good jobs are scarce, not just for the young, but for everybody.
It doesn't help that the 19th century Horatio Alger mythology—upward mobility for everybody and for the lucky few, rags to riches!—has less to do with reality than ever before. Mobility mostly comes in two flavors now—downward or none at all.
The data (left) is compelling, but the real-life stories tell the tragic tale. The Times tells us that Pitt graduate Kyle Bishop, who has been working every part-time job he can find to make ends meet, also has some student debt to worry about. "Mr. Bishop, the Pittsburgh graduate, said he is 'terrified' of the effects his starter jobs might have on his ultimate career, which he hopes to be in publishing or writing. 'It looks bad to have all these short-term jobs on your résumé, but you do have to pay the bills,' he said, adding that right now his student loan debt was over $70,000."
Terrified. We've got our second magic word of the day. Kinda goes together with Luck, doesn't it? Making your way in America does not usually depend on merit. This is not a meritocracy. Still, there are all sorts of ways to get lucky. Surely some of our young people are sociopaths. A fortunate few can take the fast track to "success" by majoring in business & finance, and getting an entry level position doing trades at Goldman Sachs or Bank of America ... but I digress.
Of course, if you don't have that very expensive college degree, and you're not up-to-your-eyeballs in debt, and you couldn't get that job in "food service" or behind the counter at 7-Eleven because they gave it to some college kid, there are plenty of other reasons to be terrified.
An analysis by The New York Times of Labor Department data about college graduates aged 25 to 34 found that the number of these workers employed in food service, restaurants and bars had risen 17 percent in 2009 from 2008, though the sample size was small. There were similar or bigger employment increases at gas stations and fuel dealers, food and alcohol stores, and taxi and limousine services.
This may be a waste of a college degree, but it also displaces the less-educated workers who would normally take these jobs.
“The less schooling you had, the more likely you were to get thrown out of the labor market altogether,” said Mr. Sum, noting that unemployment rates for high school graduates and dropouts are always much higher than those for college graduates. “There is complete displacement all the way down.”
Is there any hope here? Any hope at all? I doubt it, but then again, nobody calls me Mr. Sunshine. I'm not renowned for my upbeat, cheerful, encouraging view of the possibilities inherent in American life. So if you're an Old Gal or Guy like me, the next time you see a young person, fresh out of college, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed—you know, the one who just served you that beer—look them square in the eye and ask them
So, how's that college degree workin' out for ya?
America! God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.
Plutocracies love the prospects of youngins' with student loans hangin' over their heads . . . *much* easier populace to control. Add in your typical circuses and distractions (e.g., Charlie Sheen, Dancin' with the Stars, Twitter), and you've got youngins' that are willing participants in their own subjugation.
Ah, and the orchestra played on while the Titantic sunk . . .
Posted by: Brian | 05/19/2011 at 10:57 AM