Higher education institutions received some great marketing material today with the release of a report by Georgetown University that shows almost all higher paying jobs created during the 2010 – 2014 “recovery” were filled by people with some form of degree.
The report, compiled by Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce, found 2.9 million positions it described as being “good jobs” created during the recovery, 97 percent, or 2.8 million of the total, had been filled by workers with a minimum of a bachelor’s degree.
The report defined “good jobs” as those offering an average of more than $42,700 annually- putting them on top of three tiers as per wages for occupations in which they are classified. For a year-round, full-time worker, these jobs offered more than $53,000 annually.
Georgetown researchers Anthony Carnevale, Tamara Jayasundera and Artem Gulish wrote “The numbers are clear: postsecondary education is important for gaining access to job opportunities in the current economy. Job seekers with bachelor’s degrees or higher have the best odds of securing good jobs.”
The report also found that opposed to popular belief, the recovery had created more “good jobs” than either “low-paying jobs” – less than $25,800 annually, or “middle-wage jobs” , which paid between $25,800 to $42,700.
The researchers found that good jobs and low-wage positions had recovered fully from their recession losses, but that middle-wage jobs, have had a difficult time bouncing back – 900,000 jobs below pre-recession employment levels.
The realization that employment prospects increase with a degree is also reflected in enrollment figures for institutions of higher learning. Between 2002 and 2012, enrollment rose 24 percent, from 16.6 million to 20.6 million, with most of that growth being in full-time enrollment; where the number of full-time students rose 28 percent, while the number of part-time students rose 19 percent.
In the fall of 2013, total undergraduate enrollment in degree-granting institutions was 17.5 million students, which was an increase of 46 percent from 1990.. Undergraduate enrollment figures are expected to increase from 17.5 million to 19.6 million full time students between 2013 and 2024.
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