I’m sure the headline is true, but the Human Resources Culture of corporate America is deeply invested in credentialism. For some jobs if you don’t have the right sheepskin you don’t get past the gatekeeper. As long as that’s the case, a college degree may not correlate to upward economic mobility (per this study) but the lack of one will almost ensure mobility of the downward sort.
There are no guarantees, but in a labour market rigged as to who gets the best jobs going to a good school (“good” being defined by our society as name-brand, US News top 30 or so) does matter more than the getting the right (“right” being defined as practical) degree. Outside the professions requiring a graduate degree it’s all about contacts and networking – an art history degree from Yale will be enough to get you a job at an investment bank if your friend and classmate is the daughter of its executive VP.
As for union jobs, those are thinner and thinner on the ground outside the public sector thanks to “right to work” laws and 40 years of anti-union propaganda (not that unions didn’t do their part in their own demise).
The licensed trades (plumber, electrician, etc.) are an alternative that can translate to economic mobility, but vocational education has been so devalued by the myth that “everyone needs a college degree” that America has convinced itself these are jobs for “losers.”
Definitely not. Once you get outside the tier one law school range a lot of them are resorting to scams to cover up the sad truth about their graduates’ employment prospects.
