Hurtin': College Grads Line Up for Unemployment

The latest unemployment data shows that college graduates are taking a harder hit in this downturn than non-college graduates, according to The Times:

Since March 2007, the number of college graduates who are unemployed has risen at a faster rate, 75 percent, than has the number of all unemployed Americans who are 25 and older, 62 percent.

In today’s knowledge economy, knowledge is dispensable when the bottom falls out, not that the critics of higher education's expansion are gaining much ground, as no segment of the labor market is having employment success.

The claim that America needs a more highly educated workforce to remain globally competitive in the twenty-first century needs more rigorous analysis. When the economy does pick-up, it will surely need lots of skilled workers, including college-educated ones, but questions remain about in what sectors, in what quantities, and how higher education can service those occupational needs.