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January 14, 2009
It's a lose-lose situation for students in this economy. Students are returning to get their master's degrees or staying at school to further their education. However, in this recession, it's hard to get financing or find a job even with multiple degrees.
On the one side, enrollment is up again Winter Quarter. At the same time, the December unemployment rate for college graduates was 3.7 percent, half of the total December unemployment rate of 7.2 percent, according to the Associated Press.
Many jobs lost, especially in the Miami Valley, are manufacturing jobs lost by unskilled workers who need to further their education.
As a result, the workforce is learning skills they need to compete in a globalized market by furthering their education.
But the benefits of more education may not be seen for some time. To begin with, it's a struggle to get financing.
Then there's a matter of being too qualified. Applicants are finding businesses can't afford to pay them according to their degrees.
While a degree leads to higher paying, more stable jobs, the unemployment rate for college graduates is expected to hit four or five percent in 2009, according to the Associated Press. Increased enrollment in higher education has weakened the power of a college degree as well.
So a paradox has occurred where education is supposed to create jobs, but high labor costs are sending jobs overseas. The best thing to do is increase education anyway. Until Obama's inauguration and his stimulus package and education plan are implemented and until the state of Ohio passes its budget, it's hard to tell when there'll be change.
Yet when the economy returns, it'd be better to be ready and qualified than it would to be behind in the new economy that emerges.
Here are the facts for 2008, according to the Associated Press:
4.9 percent: National unemployment rate in December 2007.
2.6 million: Jobs lost nationally in 2008.
1.9 million: Jobs lost in the last four months alone.
791,000: Factory jobs lost in 2008.
395,500: Factory jobs lost in the last four months.
522,000: Retail jobs lost in 2008.
261,000: Retail jobs lost in the last four months.
22,000: Automobile dealership jobs lost in December alone.
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