More on college degrees and employment

Adding this to a long running series in this blog:

The current generation of college graduates will only see a higher standard of living if "they get graduate degrees and are willing to give up a lot of free time," says Diane Swonk of Mesirow Financial. She says that while falling incomes may make up lost ground, the issue will be the distribution of those gains.

Incomes are being held down by persistently high unemployment and tepid economic growth, and the situation isn't expected to improve much in the foreseeable future.

I told my department colleagues that I don't know what to advice/suggest to students anymore regarding jobs and careers. Especially when with every passing day I am more and more convinced that higher education and job-credentialing ought not to be thought of in the same vein, and that it is a disservice to explicitly or implicitly suggest that jobs and prosperous middle class lives are guaranteed upon graduation--particularly at public universities catering to low-income students.