This article talks about a college degree and job opportunities. The article argues that in the past, a college graduate could earn much more over a lifetime than a person with a high-school degree, but now, "old patters are about to change."
It argues that in the past, there was a lesser number of college-graduates, and just that very exclusivity is what promised financial security. In today's age though, the supply of college-graduates has and is rapidly increasing, not only in the United States but also in the rest of the world. Competition for jobs is increasing, as the pool of talent is increasing. "The best and the brightest of the rich world must increasingly compete with the best and the brightest from poorer countries who are willing to work harder for less money." Then it continues to argue that the demand for educated labour is being reshaped by technology, just like the demand for agricultural labour was reshaped in the 19th century and that for factory labour in the 20th. Faster, more efficient computers and Technology is (and already has if you look at the past) taken over jobs usually held by humans, decreasing a demand for them.
It concludes by hinting that the future is now far less unpredictable for the university graduate as compared to the past. as it concludes with the statement "....But the reconfiguration of brain-work will also make life far less cosy and predictable for the next generation of graduates."
This is a pretty interesting article that I have always considered but never really thought much about. Apparently it needs to be a written article by an economist to think about the "what ifs." Of course we all love new inventions in technology but I can say for myself am worried that we can find ourselves reaching the point of robot assistants as more and more often simple, everyday activities, now have a form of technology to complete the task for us. As the article mentions, jobs previously held by people are now simply computer programs that can be done by individuals in the comfort of their own home. This may be a long work in progress but in thirty or forty years down the road, we will be amazed with the technology that has been produced to make our lives much more simplistic. The last thing people want to do is work, and as long as that holds true various new technologies will be invented to maximize our potential to be lazy.
ReplyDeleteBeing from Michigan, I have seen a lot of the impact that the decrease in domestic manufacturing has had on jobs for those with lesser degrees. In the automotive industry, workers were able to obtain a truly middle-class salary without a college degree and live comfortable on their high school diploma. This way of life is a joke in the state and the country today, and as this article points out, it is necessary to get a college degree to have financial security. But even this may be a myth in the near future. As the article states, it is no longer assumed that you can be financially comfortable with only a college degree, and the need for graduate training is becoming the norm. This is an expected next step based on the history that we have seen in the diminishing value of a high school diploma.
ReplyDeleteCollege degree's job-seeking challenge is a quite realistic social recently. Not only in US, as talked in this article, the situation is even more serious in a some Asian countries. Actually people with normal college degree are facing a very awkward dilemma: they cannot get a nice job easily because there are numerous graduates; they are not willing to do something with lower paid because they think they are educated and should deserve more.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, the unemployment rate of college graduates is accordingly high in these countries