Kevin Carey chronicles the long history of doom-and-gloom stories about a glut of college degrees:
[T]he press misunderstands how the education needs of the modern economy have been augmented by technology and globalization. Many jobs involving simple, repetitive tasks have been rendered obsolete by machines. … Economists call this “skill-biased technology change." Under this scenario, more productive workers earn more, on average. And the workers who come to the labor market able to take advantage of complex technologies and manipulate flows of information are disproportionately college graduates. That’s why the labor market continues to pay a premium for degrees.
The great recession of 2008 threw people from all walks of life out of work. But college graduates were most likely to have jobs when the economic crisis began and were least likely to lose them in the financial storm. Even as unemployment remains stubbornly high, college graduates are the only members of the labor force whose employment rate rose during the first five months of this year.
Yglesias chimes in:
The other thing that I always think is worth mentioning about this is career ladders. You don’t need a college degree to be a cook in a restaurant. But if you’re a good cook, you might want to start your own restaurant one day. And if you’re looking to start a business, then I think you’re going to find that skill in math, writing, etc. are all very useful. You don’t really “need” to go to college to learn that stuff, but it’s probably helpful, as are the personal and professional connections you might make in college.
The Dish 