I remember reading an article roughly 25 years ago about recent college graduates who had jobs as bike messengers and coffee shop baristas. The author, the late William Henry, was asking if too many people were going to college. People still want to know. Now questions about the employment prospects of recent college graduates are raised throughout the mainstream media continually, for good reason. There is a glut of college graduates but a shortage of jobs that college graduates want to take – or feel they deserve. More and more of them are taking jobs that don’t require a college degree, which pushes people without degrees out of those jobs. Alana Semuels, writing for the Los Angeles Times, compares past and present:
In 1970, only 2
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 48 Not surprisingly, a third of 4-year college graduates don’t feel that college prepared them well for employment, as a report by Robert Charette warns against emphasizing STEM at the expense of other disciplines. He says that without a good grounding in the arts, literature, and history, STEM students narrow both their worldview and their career options. He cites a 2011 op-ed piece by Norman Augustine, the former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, who said:
In my position as CEO of a firm employing over 80,000 engineers, I can testify that most were excellent engineers. But the factors that most distinguished those who advanced in the organization was the ability to think broadly and read and write clearly.
Charette’s view is that everyone needs a solid grounding in science, engineering, and math. In that sense, he says, there is a STEM knowledge shortage. To fill that shortage you don’t necessarily need a college or university degree in a STEM discipline, but you do need to learn those subjects, from childhood until you head off to college or get a job.
Very good article. Random points:
1. I wouldn’t necessarily believe what big business says about a skills gap. This paper purports to document that H1B is used to hold down wages, not recruit the top international talents.
http://www.epi.org/press/1b-visa-program-attracting-brightest-workers/
2. Charles “Bell Curve” Murray claims that only 15% of entering college freshmen will eventually work in a field that uses the hard skills they learn in college. It’s reasonable to suspect the sincerity of his motives. It’s also reasonable to suspect that colleges exist to promote an overly idealistic view of the world, like the equality of cultures and profitability of art education.
Maybe Murray is right. I have an undergrad in marketing but I’ve been working in accounting for nearly 4 years now. None of my classmates have been able to score a marketing job either. I think you are right about H1B though, US schools are world class and there is no need to import talent.
We Hindus have an Eternal War between Light[Karma] Vs Dark, Gods Vs Demons, Suras Vs Asuras, Adityas vs Daityas.
If The Cold war was eternal all in STEM would be happy with a stable Job.
how do u feel about ur chosen majors journalism and linguistics?
also no word on sykes yeti is a bear dna?
one of the points often missed is these lower paying jobs while not requiring a degree still has to pay for that degree. colleges always bill the degree life as a better life. is it. I feel sorry for my children and the America they are growing up in. phone bills bigger than the food bill and mortgages robbing 85 percent of your pay for 30 years.
Your entries on this blog are a breath of level-headed non-ideological fresh air. Nice to escape “the” issues every once in a while.
Thank you.
IBM discrimination settlement undermines argument for doubling immigration
https://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusablog/beckj/october-1-2013/ibm-discrimination-settlement-undermines-argument-doubling-immigration
Justice Department Hits IBM Over H-1B Hiring Practices
http://news.dice.com/2013/09/27/justice-department-hits-ibm-h-1b-hiring-practices-045/