Dive Brief:
- A new study from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce finds good news when it comes to job prospects for college grads.
- By categorizing data by occupation rather than industry, researchers found nearly 44% of jobs added during the economic recovery were “good jobs” that paid well and often offered benefits — and almost all of them went to college grads.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that science, technology, engineering, math, and health care professions accounted for the most growth in good jobs, while those in education lost ground.
Dive Insight:
It has become common practice to question the value of a college degree based on job outlooks for graduates. Researchers studying the economic recovery have found a rise in part-time service sector jobs that don’t pay well, but this latest data set adds nuance to that narrative by more carefully categorizing the actual jobs. Highly paid home health care workers, for example, now will be counted among the good jobs rather than the low-wage ones more common in the home health industry.
This news is positive for higher education administrators striving to convince prospective students and their parents of the return on investment of a college degree. Those with at least a bachelor’s still perform significantly better than their high school-only peers, and, according to Georgetown researchers, they’re also finding jobs.