A College Degree Has Never Been More Valuable

For anyone who’s wondering whether a college degree is still worth it, The Wall Street Journal had a nice summary of the statistics this weekend:
The recession has led to steep job losses across the U.S. work force, but less-educated people have been hit particularly hard. The unemployment rate for workers over 25 years old who haven’t gone beyond high school rose to 10% in May, nearly doubling from 5.2% a year earlier, the government said Friday. Among workers who haven’t completed high school, the unemployment rate rose to 15.5%, compared with 8.4% last year. By contrast, the jobless rate among those with four-year college degrees was 4.8%, up considerably from 2.3% a year ago, but well below the rate for people with less education. College graduates have definitely been hurt by the current recession. Thousands find themselves out of work, and many of those newly unemployed will struggle to find a job that paid as well as their last one. Still, on a relative basis, a college education has never been more valuable. The pay gap between college graduates and everyone else, for instance, reached a record high last year. Four-year-college graduates made 54 percent more, on average, than people who attended college but did not graduate. Fifty-four percent! If you’re a college student trying to decide whether to get your degree, I would urge you to remember that number — rather than anecdotes about unemployed college graduates.