17,000,000 College-Educated Americans Are Wasting Their Degree On Menial Jobs

Business Insider ^ | 10/30/2010 | Hannah Kim

[WebFocus]

There's a good chance that the server pouring your coffee and the parking attendant valeting your car has a bachelor's degree, or even a doctoral degree. 

Richard Vedder at The Chronicle found some frightening statistics on the menial jobs college graduates are taking:

17,000,000 college educated Americans have jobs that they are overqualified for, according to the BLS.

Over 482,000 college-educated Americans are customer service representatives and over 100,000 are maids and janitors; 5,057 of whom have a Ph.D.

More here:

Image: Bureau of Labor Statistics

This data examines the diminishing return of a college education as college graduates.  It also highlights the mismatch between the American worker with the skills needed for tomorrow's jobs.

So are any colleges worth the money?

[hometoroost]

The title should read “17,000,000 million Americans who would have better off in trade school wasted their money and ours on a federally subsidized college education.”

[donna]

Wasting Their Degree On Menial Jobs

They should learn the lessons of America's roots:

Puritan Work Ethic:

"The Puritans declared the sanctity of all honorable work. In so doing, they rejected a centuries-old division of callings into “sacred” and “secular”… This Puritan rejection of the dichotomy between sacred and secular work has far-reaching implications. It judges every honorable job to be of intrinsic value, and integrates every vocation with a Christian’s spiritual life. It makes every job consequential by regarding it as the arena for glorifying and obeying God and for expressing love (through service) to a neighbor."

Puritan Work Ethic: the Dignity of Life’s Labors Christianity Today, October 1979, p. 15

[Eva]

I am sure that the SEIU is complaining that these college graduates are stealing the jobs that they want for the “oppressed” people in the country.

[SanFranDan]

ROFL

“Exactly, like my friend’s son who is the proud owner of a master’s in Czech languages and studies. Big demand for that in the middle of Texas ; )”

[Nepeta]

College is a joke unless you are taking science and engineering

Even this is no guarantee, especially if you are older and experienced.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

17,000,000 American Menial Workers Wasted Their Time and Money Getting a Worthless Diploma

[JimSEA]

Some of this is simple supply and demand. Eons ago, I got my degree with Labor Relations and Law courses(before IR degrees were offered at Arizona), did my duty to Uncle Sam and discovered nobody wanted me. I had worked my way through school at a mine and returned there for 12 years until a labor relations job opened up. Every thing worked out and I made good money.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

A college degree does not equal a natural demand.

True enough. And there's nothing shameful about a college graduate working blue-collar or service jobs until he can find something commensurate with his training.

[Paved Paradise]

That is partly true. Of course, you need a college degree to get some of these mundane jobs anymore.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

We’ll always need plumbers. Just sayin. Trash haulers too!

[rabscuttle385]

Employers are interested in how you financed your education, if you just financed it with loans instead of working part-time, that's a big strike against the applicant.

If you financed six years of partying, that's a strike against you. If you financed the degree in order to finish in three years and get a one-year accelerated masters using the fourth year, that works in your favor, now doesn't it?

[jeffc]

There also happens to be a lot of jobs that require a degree (it doesn't really matter in what discipline, only that you have a degree). I worked at an IT company that required me to have a 4 year degree. I had an MCSE, but only a 2 year degree, so I lied about the degree.

They hired me and the job was so easy, I spent half my day reading trade journals and manuals (OK, I did need to read the manuals, but I REALLY read them over and over). Bottom line, all you really needed was some certification, not a bachelors.

[dfwgator]

“Exactly, like my friend’s son who is the proud owner of a master’s in Czech languages and studies. Big demand for that in the middle of Texas ; )”

Well it might come in handy during Westfest.

[P-Marlowe]

A Liberal Arts degree is the functional equivalent of a GED. That and $5 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

[GailA]

Then they will learn to NOT vote in marxist!

[TruthConquers]

“...you need a college degree to get some of these mundane jobs anymore.”

Yes, that is true. My hairdresser has a son who graduated and got a job with the car rental company, Enterprise. They won’t look at you if you DON’T have a college degree.

BUT, my daughter has a cousin who is on scholarship at Prudue, in engineering. She told us in 2008, that of the graduating class, only 30% got a job when they finished.

So, what do you do???

The market is saturated with college degrees, both older and younger, not all of them are going to get the kind of jobs people USED to expect, yet, the degrees even in engineering can and have been off-shored???

I have a daughter that is a High School Senior now. I have been telling her it might be best to go to JC for a while as she figures out what she wants to do.

[whd23]

[Trod Upon]

In the coming years, the only degree worth getting is one in a field which absolutely demands your physical presence at the job site. Everything else—everything else—can be done from India or elsewhere at a rate you simply can’t compete with (well, at least if you insist on eating). Frankly, I think the traditional university model is dead until the US standard of living drops to the new global mean. It really has become a race to the bottom in America. Kids out of high school who want to get ahead should either be looking for a trade or thinking about emigrating.

[jmacusa]

Just keep letting in all the H1b visa’s from India and Pakistan and everywhere else in the world just flood into the country and “Wow , where did all the jobs go’’?

[meyer]

Kids out of high school who want to get ahead should either be looking for a trade or thinking about emigrating.

I've contemplated emigrating myself, and I've been around for 51 years! This ain't your daddy's constitutional republic.