Skepticism about the value of the college investment
- sciart0
- Jun 4
- 2 min read
Excerpt: "College-graduation ceremonies are expressions of joy, but also of relief. As photos are taken, tassels turned, hugs exchanged, the hope is that all of the hard work, and the money, will have been worth it.
But many Americans aren’t convinced that it is. Confidence in the institution of higher education has fallen sharply over the past decade, and among political groups, Republicans show the most skepticism. A 2024 Pew Research Center report noted that only one in four Americans says “it’s extremely or very important to have a four-year college degree in order to get a well-paying job in today’s economy.” The fact that finding a job has gotten more difficult for recent graduates hasn’t done much to inspire faith in higher education. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported in late April that the unemployment rate for recent grads is at 5.8 percent (compared with the overall unemployment rate of 4.2 percent), its highest since July 2021.
Some challenges in finding a job after graduation are more about the economic patterns of the past few years than they are about the deficiencies of college. In 2021, America was going through the “Great Resignation,” when many people were quitting jobs to find better pay or better working conditions elsewhere. But after inflation rose dramatically that same year and the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates in 2022, demand cooled for white-collar industry jobs such as those in technology and consulting. Now “the Great Resignation has become what some people call the ‘Great Stay,’” my colleague Derek Thompson told me. “We’re still adding jobs, but there’s not as many openings for the musical chairs of the economy as there used to be.”
The years immediately following the pandemic were also a time of major wage growth for traditionally low-wage industries, such as retail and hospitality,which employ a large share of workers with less formal education. But this growth may not last throughout a worker’s life: In general, earnings for low-wage jobs that do not require a college degree tend to stagnate over time. “Wages grow faster for more-educated workers because college is a gateway to professional occupations, such as business and engineering, in which workers learn new skills, get promoted, and gain managerial experience,” the economist David Deming explained in The Atlantic in 2023.