Matching College Degrees with the Job Market

In today’s economic environment, students are increasingly focusing on matching the degree they earn with the job marketplace after they graduate. To be competitive in today’s job market, students will need to graduate with marketable abilities. They also need to turn into broadly educated individuals.

Numerous individuals still value a liberal arts education because it provides a broad understanding of a wide range of subject areas and it encourages the acquisition of understanding rather than data, thereby creating a a lot more “nicely-rounded” individual. In the past, employers sought these graduates with generalized skills.

In a New York Times write-up titled “Producing College Relevant” (2009), Kate Zernike points out that a liberal arts college in Maine is offering free classes or paid student loans for a year to any student who can’t uncover work in their field inside six months of graduation. She also points to other examples such as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which is eliminating its philosophy significant, and Michigan State University, which is performing away with its American studies and classics offerings. Zernike goes on to point out that parents and students are “increasingly focused on what comes following college. What’s the return on investment…”

Colleges and universities have constantly adjusted their course offerings to reflect the requirements, desires, and social causes as nicely as the economic realities of the times. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, colleges provided courses that addressed environmental, civil rights, women’s, and anti-war issues. The issues may be various, but the reaction is the same – adapt and modify or face obsolescence.

The key to managing the college experience is to balance economic practicalities with the require to acquire life-lengthy abilities. Each year college students “pick a major.” Choosing a field of study is typically based on academic interest and professional practicality. Four years of study in college will go far better, and be less difficult, for those who pick something that stimulates the mind. It is also a good idea to know that some degree programs have an excess of graduates compared to available jobs and job openings. The following will assist in that decision-making process.

Degrees and Growth Rates

A lot more than 1.five million bachelor degrees had been awarded for the year ending June 2007, an boost of nearly 39,000 from the year prior to. As a comparison, in 1965, 494,000 graduated with bachelor degrees. Since then bachelor degree graduates show a practically unbroken improve with couple of exceptions.

Between 1990 and 2007, 22.five million individuals received BA degrees from United States colleges and universities. During the identical period the labor force increased by 28.four million people.

The annual growth rate for men and women receiving BA degrees in the course of that 17-year period was almost double the growth rate in the labor force, or two.21 percent compared to 1.14 percent. BA degrees growing faster than labor force guarantees that college educated degree holders have a growing share of the labor force.

So, what does this mean for the student attempting to determine on a certain significant in college?

BA Degrees in Selected Programs

The increase of new graduates entering the labor force with college degree skills is considerable by itself. Consistent and productive work in college correlates with work and performance on the job, assuring that BA degrees in any program improve employment opportunities. Finishing a BA degree has benefits in the job market regardless of the degree program. Nonetheless, the distribution of degrees by program adjustments the job marketplace, specifically at the entry-level.

For those with distinct job preferences and career goals, it is very good to know that some degree programs have several graduates, but few new jobs, and vice versa. Given that the National Center for Education Statistics at the Department of Education publish degree data by program and the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the Department of Labor publishes job data by occupation, it is feasible to match degrees with jobs to make informed decisions and stay away from surprises.

Matching Jobs and Degrees

Take the BA degree in psychology, a major with a degree-job mismatch. There had been 90,000 BA degrees in psychology in the year ending June 2007, or almost 6 percent of BA degrees for the year, but no jobs employing, or needing, psychology skills that do not call for a master’s or doctoral degree. Therefore, unless a student is willing to complete a graduate degree, there are couple of job opportunities in the field.

Pc and Details Science also has a mismatch, but in the opposite direction. Computer and Details Sciences and Support Services had 42,000 BA degrees in ten degree programs. Given that 2004, jobs needing BA degree skills in laptop or computer science are up over 324,000 with expected openings close to 100,000 a year. Personal computer systems analysts, software engineers, network pc systems administrators, and analysts are in high demand and doing nicely.

Engineering had 67,092 BA degrees in 34 degree programs. Engineering jobs continue to grow with nearly 149,000 new jobs because 2004 with 48,000 anticipated job openings. Engineering continues to be an employable key.

Communications and Journalism programs had 78,420 BA degrees in eight degree programs. The large number and continued growth of these degrees comes at a time when newspapers and television are cutting back on jobs. Job prospects here are not hopeless simply because selected media and communications jobs are increasing. Public relations specialists, editor, and technical writer have nearly 400,000 jobs and some growth, but journalism degrees are in surplus.

The teaching profession continues to grow at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels with over a million jobs a year in secondary teaching alone and an estimated 20,000 new jobs a year in recent years. It is a excellent concept for any person doing degree programs in social science to contemplate finishing the requirements for a teaching certificate. Those with BA degrees in mathematics (14,954 degrees), English, foreign language and literature (75,392 degrees), and Liberal Arts, General Studies and humanities, (44,255 degrees) might uncover teaching is a viable and rewarding outlet for employment.

Wellness Professions and Related Clinical Sciences programs produced 101,810 BA degrees in 34 degree programs. Wellness care jobs have continued to grow each and every month appropriate through the 2008 and 2009 recession with registered nurse leading the way and therapy, technologist and technician jobs correct behind. There are a lot of more jobs than BA degrees, generating wellness care one of America’s most employable degrees.

John Bedecarre and Scott Olster state in CNN Income.com (2010) that “the number of registered nurses is expected to swell to 3.2 million by 2018, accounting for approximately 581,500 new jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” With the aging of the population 65 and older (19% in 2030), the want for skilled nursing care and property health care in certain will rise considerably. Bedecarre and Olster also project fields such as network systems and data analysis, software engineering, biomedical engineering, accountants, auditors, and veterinarians will be growth fields of the future.

A Word of Caution

Some in the world of financial planning express the view that the value of a college degree has diminished in recent years. In a Washington Post write-up titled “Is College Overrated?” (2010), Sarah Kaufman raises the question of whether the cost of a college degree is a wise investment. In her article, Kaufman states, “The hefty cost of a college degree has some specialists worried that its positive aspects are fading.” She goes on to quote Richard Vedder, an economics professor at Ohio University as stating “I believe it makes less sense for more families than it did five years ago. It is turn into a lot more problematic about regardless of whether folks need to be going to college.”

Noted monetary planner, Ric Edelman (2010) has observed that in 1970, tuition and fees for full-time undergraduate students averaged at public universities and ,980 at private universities. These days, those numbers are  ,020 and ,273, respectively. Clearly, the investment is significantly far more than it was 40 years ago.

In defense of a four-year degree, Kaufman (2010) points out that, on average, those who earn a college degree will earn 53% more income over the course of their career than those who hold only a high school diploma. The median annual income of young adults with bachelor degrees is ,000. For those with high school diplomas, the median income is ,000. For a lot of with degrees in engineering, pc science, accounting, and the well being-care field, this holds true. For other people in fields such as psychology, journalism, and the behavioral sciences, this wage gap shrinks. In Kaufman’s words, “If you main in accounting or engineering, you’re fairly likely to get a return on your investment. If you are majoring in anthropology or social work or education, the rate on return is going to be a excellent deal lower, on average.”

On leading of all of this details, the stories of folks like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Dan Snyder, Michael Dell, and David Geffen – billionaires who never graduated from college – are thrown around daily as examples of how young people can be successful without a college degree. While enticing stories, they are usually as unrealistic as the stories of sports figures with less than high school degrees who also turn out to be extremely wealthy. Statistically, this will not be the fate of most young individuals.

A Final Word

News articles like the one noted above question the worth of a college investment. Job and wage information makes it specific college still pays, especially for those attending state supported community and four-year colleges. Matching a program of study to today’s job marketplace makes expert and monetary sense.

Discovering a balance between becoming an “educated person” and becoming “employable” in today’s consumer-driven economy is no effortless task. These objectives are not mutually exclusive. Personal, career, and financial rewards are considerable and worth taking into consideration as 1 goes through the method of selecting a major in college. The key is to uncover that delicate balance between practicality and the desire to grow to be a well rounded, educated individual.

Sources:

Bedecarre, John, and Scott Olster. (2010, September 7). Fastest growing jobs in America.” Fortune on CNN Cash.com. Retrieved from http://www.finance.yahoo.com/career-work/post/110586/fastest-growing-jobs

Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Survey. (2007). Washington, DC: U.S Government Printing Office.

Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2007). Washington, DC. U.S. Government Printing Office.

Edelman, Ric. (2010, October). Are you making this common college planning mistake? Inside Personal Finance, 2

Kaufman, Sarah. (2010, September 10). Is college overrated? The Washington Post, p. C1.

Zernike, Kate. (2009, December 29). Making college relevant. The New York Times.

Dr. Perrino is Director of Northern Virginia Tutoring Service, LLC, and an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Northern Virginia Community College. Dr. Siegmund, a former professor of economics, has worked closely with Dr. Perrino in developing programs and policy at NVTS. The web website for NVTS is http://www.nvtutoring.com.