College Grads Taking Low-Wage Jobs Displace Less Educated

[Purveyor]

By Mar 12, 2014 2:49 PM ET

Jeanina Jenkins, a 20-year-old high-school graduate from St. Louis, is stuck in a $7.82-an-hour part-time job at McDonald’s Corp. that she calls a “last resort” because nobody would offer her anything better.

Stephen O’Malley, 26, a West Virginia University graduate, wants to put his history degree to use teaching high school. What he’s found instead is a bartender’s job in his home town of Manasquan, New Jersey.

Jenkins and O’Malley are at opposite ends of a dynamic that is pushing those with college degrees down into competition with high-school graduates for low-wage jobs that don’t require college. As this competition has intensified during and after the recession, it’s meant relatively higher unemployment, declining labor market participation and lower wages for those with less education.

The jobless rate of Americans ages 25 to 34 who have only completed high school grew 4.3 percentage points to 10.6 percent in 2013 from 2007, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Unemployment for those in that age group with a college degree rose 1.5 percentage points to 3.7 percent in the same period.

“The underemployment of college graduates affects lesser educated parts of the labor force,” said economist Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a not-for-profit research organization in Washington. “Those with high-school diplomas that normally would have no problem getting jobs as bartenders or taxi drivers are sometimes kept from getting the jobs by people with college diplomas,” said Vedder, who is also a Bloomberg View contributor.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-06/college-grads-taking-low-wage-jobs-displace-less-educated.html

[OKNancy]

1. Happened in my own family

My daughter was in a degree program that required five years ( Broadcast Journalism)... only worked in her field for a short time.
Now she works at Lowes! She will be taking her firefighters tests shortly ( already passed the physical part )

[Mass]

2. Wow, somebody gets paid to write this???

It is quite obvious and by now, you would have thought that most people had realized it.

Or is it that people in the media (with a job) are so much in their bubble that they think this is news?

Two reasons:

- lousy economy
- there may be more college graduates, but this does not mean there are enough jobs for college graduates. This is one of the big lies when pushing people to go to college. It may be good for you, but if you double the number of college graduates, it does not mean there will be twice as much jobs at this level.