As you can see from the graph below, the better the education the better the odds that you are still employed. As I said about a similar graph, this is one you want to print out and put on the fridge at home to help your kids understand the importance of education.
Click to make larger.
First of all let me state that education is never a bad idea. If you think it is or you are wondering whether or not to return to School – let me answer it for you quickly and succinctly; Go Back to School. As you can see below, even in tough times the ones with a College Degree are faring much better during the recession than those that don’t. So if you have been laid-off and are thinking of going back to school or finishing school, all I can say is the numbers would support it. For those of you like myself that have children at home, print out this graph and put it on the fridge to remind them of why education is important.
Click on Picture to enlarge.
Posted in Unemployment, Workforce Trends
Tagged College, College Level Unemployment, Education, Unemployment
It’s time to declare the end of adolescence. As a social institution, it’s been a failure. The proof is all around us: 19% of eighth graders, 36% of tenth graders, and 47% of twelfth graders say they have used illegal drugs, according to a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the University of Michigan. One of every four girls has a sexually transmitted disease, suggests a recent study for the Centers for Disease Control. A methamphetamine epidemic among the young is destroying lives, families, and communities. And American students are learning at a frighteningly slower rate than Chinese and Indian students.
The solution is dramatic and unavoidable: We have to end adolescence as a social experiment. We tried it. It failed. It’s time to move on. Returning to an earlier, more successful model of children rapidly assuming the roles and responsibilities of adults would yield enormous benefit to society.
Prior to the 19th century, it’s fair to say that adolescence did not exist. Instead, there was virtually universal acceptance that puberty marked the transition from childhood to young adulthood. Whether with the Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah ceremony of the Jewish faith or confirmation in the Catholic Church or any hundreds of rites of passage in societies around the planet, it was understood you were either a child or a young adult.
In the U.S., this principle of direct transition from the world of childhood play to the world of adult work was clearly established at the time of the Revolutionary War. Benjamin Franklin was an example of this kind of young adulthood. At age 13, Franklin finished school in Boston, was apprenticed to his brother, a printer and publisher, and moved immediately into adulthood.
John Quincy Adams attended Leiden University in Holland at 13 and at 14 was employed as secretary and interpreter by the American Ambassador to Russia. At 16 he was secretary to the U.S. delegation during the negotiations with Britain that ended the Revolution.
Instead of taking that leap into the next phase of life, recent college graduates have moved back into the nest.
This year, 77 percent of college grads moved back home with their parents after graduation, up from 73 percent last year and 67 percent the year before, according to a survey conducted by Collegegrad.com.
While the economic slump and higher costs of living are the primary culprit, moving back home has less of a stigma associated with it and has become a trend among the Gen Y population, according to experts.
“This is a trend we were hearing about even before talk of a recession really started,” said Sarah Zehr, assistant dean and director of Engineering Career Services at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in a report. “Gen Y students look to their parents for advice and support, and this is just another example of a trend with this generation.”
James Smart, director of Toppel Career Center a the University of Miami, echoes Zehr.
“This generation seems to have close relationships with their parents and isn’t experiencing the stigma or obstacles to returning home of previous generations,” he said.
Posted in Workforce Generational Trends
Tagged College, Education, Gen X, Gen Y, Generational Diversity, Home, Millenials
I recently wrote an article for the Des Moines Business Record on the monetary impact of education on today’s workers. I think it is an especially important topic as competition for employees and jobs is becoming more of a global concern than just an Iowan concern.
To read the article click here.
If you have any thoughts on the subject of our educational system and whether you think we are doing a good or bad job, I would love to hear it.
A recently updated survey of U.S. college undergraduates indicates that the number of students declaring computer science as their major is running about the same as it has for the last three years, a continued sharp drop off from the Internet boom years and the lowest level of production since 1995. Based on the level of declared IT majors in each of the last four years, we project production of IT graduates to continue to fall through 2010. The Taulbee survey Computer Research News’ annual “Taulbee Survey” counts each year how many undergraduates have declared computer science as their major. The latest results show that the numbers, which had been falling precipitously the past few years, have stabilized. Some 12,195 undergraduates in the United States declared computer science/computer engineering as their major for the 2007-2008 academic year. This is slightly down from 12,783 declared majors in 2006. In 2003, declared computer science majors nose-dived 23% from 23,033 in 2002 to 17,706 in 2003 and then plunged 21.4% plunge from 15,950 in 2004 to 12,532 in 2005. These declines in declared computer science majors imply like declines in computer science graduates four academic years later.
Posted in Education, Workforce Trends
Tagged College, Education, IT, Worker Shortage
