[hyperpape]

I wonder what the impact of the rising base rate of employees with college degrees is. In 1992, a fresh college graduate had better educational attainment than 42% of the labor force. In 2016 (latest date I found numbers for), that was down to 32%. https://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2017/educational-attainment-of...

That shifting distribution would somewhat reduce the advantage of a college degree against the average member of the labor force.

[hdgvhicv]

Compare under 27s with a degree vs without and you see the problem is youth unemployment. If you are 25 you’re better off with a degree than without though.

In the U.K. youth unemployment is about 2005-6 levels. It was far higher by 2010.

[downrightmike]

Outcome is the same as in the great depression: new people can't get on the ladder and if you fall off the ladder, you'll never get back on.

[laughing_man]

It seemed like good advice as the manufacturing sector shrank.

[labcomputer]

Ding ding ding!

This also neatly explains why Boomers were able to have a good life with just a high school diploma. Wikipedia has a good chart, but the short version is that having a high school diploma in 1965 meant you were better educated than 50% of the labor force.

PhDs are the new undergraduate degree.