Tech Directions - March 2008 - (Page 8)

of the past six decades, the overall number of jobs requiring postsecondary credentials will increase from 29 percent in 2004 to 31 percent in 2014. Barton contends that the absolute demand for college graduates is overstated. While over 60 percent of people in existing jobs have some college or a postsecondary credential, the BLS data indicate only about 3 in 10 jobs require a postsecondary certificate of some sort. In 2004, when only 29 percent of jobs required postsecondary experiences, 40 percent of the sample of the NELS-88 cohort (National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 8th graders in 1988) had obtained a two- or fouryear degree or higher. That’s why many taxi drivers and waitresses are college graduates, he notes. Earning trends among college graduates show a downturn for men and a modest increase for women over three decades. That earnings have not increased dramatically indicates that employers do not feel they have significant unmet needs; if this were the case, salaries would have increased. Nor is the percentage of young adults obtaining college degrees all that impressive. Between 2000 and 2005, there was only a 5 percent increase in baccalaureate degrees (to 29 percent), almost all due to females. Barton points out that since 1995, productivity has accelerated “with no demonstrable improvement in workforce skills or acceleration in job requirements during that period.” While it is important to keep pace on high-skills occupations, it also is advisable to consider which ones are more susceptible to being outsourced such as computer programmers and microbiologists. Higher education yields personal and societal benefits beyond jobs, he concludes, “but we should not just accept—and repeat—the nowconventional wisdom that there is an accelerating economic demand for workers with college degrees and that our standing in the global economy is threatened if we do not meet it.” 8 techdirections ◆ MARCH 2008 http://www.hossfeldbender.com/tec http://www.elexp.com http://www.carvewright.com/education http://www.carvewright.com/education http://www.elexp.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Tech Directions - March 2008

Tech Directions - March 2008 Technically Speaking Contents Direct from Washington The News Report Technology’s Past Technology Today Mastering Computers HDTV—Understanding the New, Dealing with the Old Technical Studies Lead to Dream Career Fill and Fund Your CAD Classroom with These Exciting Strategies STEM Progress in Katrina’s Wake School Web Site of the Month Spring Spotlight More than Fun

Tech Directions - March 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.