Eleven states — and counting — have announced that they will remove college degree requirements from most jobs in the state executive branch. This welcome movement among a bipartisan group of reform-minded governors aims to reverse one of the defining trends of the labor market over the past several decades: college degree requirements for jobs that did not formerly need them.
This phenomenon, known as degree inflation, accelerated during the Great Recession as employers exploited a slack labor market to demand higher education levels from job applicants.
One study shows that between 2007 and 2019, the share of job postings requesting four-year degrees rose more than 60%, even after accounting for changes in the types of jobs available.
STUDY SHOWS EMPLOYERS ARE PUSHING TO GET WORKERS IN-OFFICE ON MONDAYS
It’s true that college often pays off. But if the number of college graduates rises faster than the number of college-level jobs, not everyone will realize economic mobility; college degrees will simply become more common among middle-class workers.
For instance, in 1990 just 38% of prime-age workers earning between $60,000 and $80,000 per year (in today’s dollars) had a bachelor’s degree. Today, the proportion is 52%.
Around four in 10 recent college graduates work in jobs that have not traditionally required a college degree, according to research by Burning Glass Technologies and the Strada Institute.
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For instance, in 1990 just 38% of prime-age workers earning between $60,000 and $80,000 per year (in today’s dollars) had a bachelor’s degree. Today, the proportion is 52%.
The federal government fuels degree inflation by keeping a thumb on the proverbial scales in favor of traditional colleges and universities. While colleges offering four-year degrees benefit from Pell Grants, tuition tax credits, and subsidized federal loans, alternative postsecondary pathways such as apprenticeships must make do with only a fraction of the funding.
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Employers therefore rely on the bachelor’s degree as an indicator of competence, even if alternative paths could prepare students for the workforce at a lower time and money cost. Policymakers should overhaul these funding streams to treat different pathways equally.