No, especially when adulthood is now delayed so much. People do not enter the job market until they are 22 (in a good economy) or later nowadays. That is potentially four or more lost years of income earning. College is not for everyone and it saddles those folks with debt.

I wish people would stop encouraging everyone to go to college. I think that student debt is going to be the next "bubble" that bursts.

I currently pay the minimum for my student loans and it works out to $1,006 a month for 300 months. Not that I do not feel that these are my debts that I must repay, but I am sure there are a lot of people in my shoes, out looking for a job and taking minimum wage jobs, who have to pay this debt back and feel that they received little benefit in return.

You certainly haven't.

I agree. I wish I would not have wasted life and resources in attaining more (mostly useless) education.

As for your joke, it was pretty easy. 3/10.

YESSS

I would love to see everyone get a higher education...

However I think you will just end with a lot of people with useless degrees and stuck in low end jobs.
Meaning its all supply and demand. If a lot of people get degrees that are not in demand, that means an oversupply and frankly well No jobs...

Before these people came out of high school and got a job.

Now these people go to school get $10,000's of debt and now are still in the same position...

Luckily I got a decent Bank Job that many my age would kill to have... I want to get something much better though... If I am here another year


Even so... I know a lot of friends that had to work at Mcdonalds after University but were able to get a decent job and it would have been impossible without higher education...

Also From what I know, the unemployment rate for College Grads is still very low...

There's no mid-skill level jobs anymore.

My only advice is...

Sitting at home and complaining that the economy sucks is easy but you will forever sit home unemployed...

Meaning you can sit around and complain, or actually work hard and make your life better.
It took me 6 months to find a decent Finance job (okay I really spent 4 months actually looking)... I got by mostly working odd jobs and being a cheap bastard...

"There's no mid-skill level jobs anymore."


True, and false...

A lot mid skill jobs are now taken by older people who have experience...
Why would companies hire new people with no experience in such jobs?


As I said before, sitting around and expecting the Govt to get you a job by forcing companies to hire people is not going to happen.....

No, it's an established fact. There's either high-skill (usually high-tech) jobs or low-skill retail. The bottom fell out on industrial work, so...

There are a lot of trade jobs (though maybe you consider them high-skill, like me). Electricians, plumbers, pipefitters, welders, and trade jobs like that are in demand and rates are only going to go up as the average age in those jobs is somewhere in the 50s.

Was drilling four holes for a door at a GM plant over-and-over and over really a mid-skill job?

Trade jobs are good (and it doesn't help that vocational education in the US is abysmal), but not enough. Manufacturing really *is* a good way to sustain the more precarious class.

Yeah but that ship has sailed..


Mid Level jobs exist but they are on the decline or are held by people who are not leaving them for a long long long long time...

The problem with those trade jobs either people don't have the skill or don't want to do them. I know I am in the latter category. I didn't waste 6 years of school and get a masters to be a plumber.

That is why salaries for those types of jobs will go up. The problem is that there are people who will waste 2-3 years and drop out of college and wind up working at a place that does not require any sort of degree. That person could have decided to not go to college and work his way through the trades.

We simply do not have a need for a million history majors (or beyond). But we will have a need in the near future for plumbers and electricians. Perhaps if children were not coddled and told they were the best and their own unique person and encouraged to go to college from the day they were born, we might have a more balanced workforce.

I doubt you need a masters to do your job, but thanks for pointing out that you have one to us in to the unwashed masses. The places hiring may have said you need one or they would not look at your resume (likely true), but that is simply an easy way for them to distinguish amongst candidates when there is a glut in a given field. For you day-to-day work, I think you could probably do it with a BA or if you simply read a lot of books.

"I didn't waste 6 years of school and get a masters to be a plumber."


Better then spending all that time to get a BA and working at Macdonalds after


Actually that is not funny but sad....

For Museum fields you need masters because of the training. You have to know how to catalogue artifacts, clean artifacts, and storing procedures. Reading books won't really be enough. I got that training from my masters. The problem for me is that field is heavily competitive and I have been stuck only finding work with the National Park Service as interpreter. Also not sure what you are implying but I wanted to be a historian because I love history and chose that profession. I wasn't coddled but chose my fields because it was what I wanted to do.

I know that is sad and I know people who are in that situation (not Macdonalds but working as waitress or retail). I don't think I have the spatial recognition to be a plumber or carpenter anyway. I have trouble hammering a nail straight so those would be the wrong career choices for me. My skills are with logic, reading, and writing, which is why I chose a career with historic sites, museums, etc. I guess I could have went to law school but there are just too many lawyers now.

There is nothing wrong with that but we have to be realistic... There are trades jobs and low skill jobs that need to be filled forever...
Therefore, what will happen as more people get University Degrees, there will be an oversupply of such workers.
However, we now see a big shortage of trades workers...
The reason is a lot of educators shun the trades thinking our precious kids should never need to get their hands dirty...

For example, the people who graduated high school who now drive a truck or work as a mechanic or some other trades job are making way more money then my self and office working friends... The big difference is those people really work hard, easily 10-13 hours a day...

Just to add in...

The lack of general knowledge about handywork, cars and other similar things with people my age is hilarious...

Its like I installed a light at home and my friends were like "didn't you get shocked, isn't that dangerous, why not hire a electrician?,"

Yeah buy a light for 10 bucks and spend 100 dollars to install it: whistle:

To be honest its my father who taught me...

However, its a clear sign that Trades jobs will be in huge demand in the future...

Well most people who could be going into those degrees usually go to college. Some of them do go to college with no plan but to go to college. When you go to college, you need to have an idea of what you want to do with your life. People like me or more the exception than the rule. Most kids have no clue and end up either as business or education majors which is why there are so many of them in college. Probably need to encourage some kids (especially those with lower grades) to go to trade schools. Obama and others are actually pushing that now.

Lol Business school...

I was like deciding what to do back in 2007...

Hmm Not sure... business and then I choose Finance...

I can get behind that idea.