There are 75 million workers without a college degree, but only 30 million of them have 'good jobs'

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Wed Jul 26, 2017, 12:17 PM - Edit history (1)

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There are 75 million workers without a college degree, but only 30 million of them have 'good jobs'

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ETA, 12:15 p.m.: here's the article, or what I am allowed to excerpt from it.

Full disclosure: I was hired for the job I have now as I was completing a course at Northern Virginia Community College. Because of them, I am employed.

The State of ‘Good Jobs’ in America
More than 30 million jobs that pay $35,000-plus are open to noncollege graduates



By Lauren Weber

https://twitter.com/laurenweberwsj
[e-mail]

Updated July 26, 2017 12:20 a.m. ET

At a time when politicians and pundits decry the end of middle-class jobs, it may come as a surprise that there are 30 million jobs paying more than $35,000 a year for U.S. workers without four-year college degrees. ... Now for the bad news: there are 75 million U.S. workers without college diplomas, or 2.5 workers for every one of those good jobs, meaning that high-school grads have far lower odds of winning the career lottery than they did 25 years ago, according to a new report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. Good jobs, as defined by the report’s authors, pay more than $35,000 a year, or more than $45,000 for workers over the age of 45.

The number of good jobs for noncollege graduates rose to 30 million in 2015 from 27 million in 1991, but the labor market grew, too. By 2015, the share of all good jobs that went to noncollege graduates fell to 45% from 60% in 1991—leaving 45 million workers in low-paying, sometimes part-time roles that don’t offer a path to the middle class.

In the post-World War II era, jobs in manufacturing and production propelled millions of American workers into the middle class. Today, more middle-class jobs for nongraduates are in financial services and health care. A high-school diploma alone won’t cut it for a lot of those jobs, however.

Among noncollege degree holders, only workers with an associate degree had better odds of finding a good job in 2015 than they did 1991, Georgetown found. High-school graduates and dropouts, and people with some college, are all faring worse now than before, the report says.
....

Write to Lauren Weber at [e-mail]

Appeared in the July 26, 2017, print edition as 'The State of Good Jobs in America.'

[tonyt53]

1. I know lots and lots of people that work in the building trades and belong to unions.

Most make more than school teachers and accountants. People tend to push everybody to go to college. That is why about 1/4 of those that start, never go back the second year. About half never graduate from college. Why push somebody to go to college and end up with a degree that is basically worthless?

How about switching the conversation to the words "post-secondary education"? A union building trades apprenticeship costs the participant nothing except their time in school. They get paid to learn on the job, then go to school at night usually. Many are able to get an associates degree because of arrangements with many community college systems. They leave school without any education related debt. More importantly, they leave school with a skill that is in very high demand. Before people start belittling this career choice, they should know that many apprentices, and other that have already completed theirs, have four year degrees that were worthless.

So, what does the WSJ know about this subject, and/or career path? They know jack shit. They look down upon them. When welders in the piping industry are knocking down over $100K plus insurance and pensions paid on top of that, why else would the WSJ take that position?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Here's the link to Georgetown University report:

Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

GOOD JOBS that Pay without a BA

Although the decline in the manufacturing economy eliminated many good jobs for high school graduates, there are still 30 million good jobs in the U.S. that pay well without a BA. These good jobs have median earnings of $55,000 and are changing from traditional blue-collar industries to skilled-services industries.

The report in .pdf: Good Jobs that Pay without a BA

ABOUT THE GOOD JOBS PROJECT

In the fall of 2017, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce will launch the Good Jobs Project website, which will show the concentration of good jobs for non-BA workers both nationally and by state. A Good Jobs Index will be created to provide users an interactive way to determine the level of economic opportunity for workers without BAs across the country. The project also focuses on the prevalence of good jobs by industry and occupation, with greater detail about the types of job opportunities that are being generated in the economy. In addition to earnings, we will examine other characteristics that describe the quality of these jobs, such as how many are full-time and how many offer benefits.

A "good job" as defined by GU may not fit your definition.

The report doesn't dig as deep as reports from the BLS.