Do you blame the economy of your lack of education in finding work?
Posted by admin in Finance Friday, 28 January 2011 08:28 4 Comments
It is easy to blame something big like the economy. But the majority of lost jobs are in the unskilled uneducated job range. So isn’t it your fault that you lost your job and not something imaginary like the economy?
If we all had PhDs, there would be exactly the same number of McDonald’s fry cooks earning minimum wage and exactly the same number of unemployed workers standing in the food stamps line.
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CHINA: Graduate unemployment on the rise
Mucun Zhou and Jing Lin
12 April 2009
Issue: 0071
Excerpt:
Ministry of Education statistics indicate more than 6 million students will graduate in China this year whereas in 2002, the total number comprised only 1.45 million. But the employment rate for graduates last year was less than 70% and the rising number seeking jobs is challenging the government at a time when the current economic crisis will surely exacerbate the problem. It is likely close to 2 million graduates will not find work – many of whom are postgraduates, even doctoral graduates.
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090409203634912
For the last two years there were still nearly as many new jobs “created” as jobs lost. Today the ratios are more nearly even. “Churn” is high and will likely increase over time. Which means losing a job and finding another is a common activity that people should simply learn to do adapt to.
I only answer this question because it makes sense in the context of therapy
I completed as much college as was possible so far, not a hard rule, but an over-easy solution with over-hard compromises
Sometimes it looks like words are stuck—I could be in a better place with a mere shift of words—and I love words so this makes sense
Money has money motive is easy to believe, maybe I’m not missing everything, but simply wasn’t fully zoned—it looks like ambiguity, but has some cachet
I don’t agree with the proposition that if everyone had a college education that there would be as many McDonald’s workers making minimum wage and all that.
The reason people go to college is because it makes them more productive at doing certain types of work.
So, if everyone had a college education there would almost certainly be LESS McDonald’s workers, and other unskilled workers, would make a HIGHER wage because people would rather work other places (and they would be able to work there) so McDonald’s would have to pay them more to work flipping burgers. The flip-side to that would be that traditional fields that employed college graduates would have more workers and pay them less. What might happen (and to a certain extent has) is that some professions that were previously satisfied with a undergrad degree might come to require advanced degrees but this won’t effect the McDonald’s worker.
Imagine that everyone who went to college made computer programs and everyone who didn’t worked in a factory making paper-clips. Well now everyone knows how to make computer programs. It will probably be more valuable for more people to go into making computer programs causing there to be less people to make paper-clips despite demand staying the same (therefore have to bid worst computer programmers away from computer programing)
The reason not everyone does or should go to college isn’t a macroeconomic question, it’s a a micro question. Maybe people who would rather work construction want to jump right into life and start making money, like working with their hands, or could be a better construction worker than software designer. You know foremen (and definitely owners) in many construction firms make more money than the AVERAGE college graduate.
The short answer to the question is that it is both the economy and the lack of education together coupled with things like expected wages after recovery that may stop you from taking a pay cut in the short term (or minimum wage laws if you make the minimum wage) that cause unemployment.