The declining value of your college degree

[BuddyLee (Premo)]

A four-year college degree, seen for generations as a ticket to a better life, is no longer enough to guarantee a steadily rising paycheck.

Just ask Bea Dewing. After she earned a bachelor's degree -- her second -- in computer science from Maryland's Frostburg State University in 1986, she enjoyed almost unbroken advances in wages, eventually earning $89,000 a year as a data modeler for Sprint Corp. in Lawrence, Kan. Then, in 2002, Sprint laid her off.

"I thought I might be looking a few weeks or months at the most," says Ms. Dewing, now 56 years old. Instead she spent the next six years in a career wilderness, starting an Internet café that didn't succeed, working temporary jobs and low-end positions in data processing, and fruitlessly responding to hundreds of job postings.

The low point came around 2004 when a recruiter for Sprint -- now known as Sprint Nextel Corp. -- called seeking to fill a job similar to the one she lost two years earlier, but paying barely a third of her old salary.

College-educated workers are more plentiful, more commoditized and more subject to the downsizings that used to be the purview of blue-collar workers only. What employers want from workers nowadays is more narrow, more abstract and less easily learned in college.

To be sure, the average American with a college diploma still earns about 75% more than a worker with a high-school diploma and is less likely to be unemployed. Yet while that so-called college premium is up from 40% in 1979, it is little changed from 2001, according to data compiled by Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington think tank.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1216...?mod=yhoofront

[jetmonkey]

party school

[BuddyLee (Premo)]

Originally Posted by jetmonkey

party school

Some of the highest STD rates too.

[jetmonkey]

That is the kind of information I come here for

Originally Posted by BuddyLee

Some of the highest STD rates too.

[RadioPatrol]

Then, in 2002, Sprint laid her off.

DOT.COM Bust ..............

[Lenny]

Originally Posted by RadioPatrol

DOT.COM Bust ..............

The Democrats want to sell every urban kid that they should have a free college education whether they are ready or not. The Klutziness started that idea in the 90's.

[LateApex]

I wonder where she's at.

I could get 'laid off' right now and find 5 other jobs within a week as a software engineer/math major.

I know here in Southern Maryland we can't find any for the four positions we have open. We are going to be getting even more contracts in the next few years where we'll need at least 6 more engineers.

Strange.

[SamSpade]

Originally Posted by LateApex

I wonder where she's at.

I could get 'laid off' right now and find 5 other jobs within a week as a software engineer/math major.

I know here in Southern Maryland we can't find any for the four positions we have open. We are going to be getting even more contracts in the next few years where we'll need at least 6 more engineers.

Strange.

Then you're very lucky. Perhaps age also factors in, but when you're laid off at 50, employers would MUCH prefer to hire someone younger with the same skills and same salary expectations. I know, because I've been there, and so have several of my friends.

I have an engineering degree and would love to work IN southern Maryland, but I'm not going to go through six months of unemployment ever again.

[RadioPatrol]

Originally Posted by SamSpade

Then you're very lucky. Perhaps age also factors in, but when you're laid off at 50, employers would MUCH prefer to hire someone younger with the same skills and Lower salary expectations. I know, because I've been there, and so have several of my friends.

I have an engineering degree and would love to work IN southern Maryland, but I'm not going to go through six months of unemployment ever again.

:fixed:


Companies always go cheaper .... throwing away yrs of experience

[LateApex]

Originally Posted by RadioPatrol

Companies sometimes go cheaper .... throwing away yrs of experience

Fixed...