Degrees and the job market

Rachael Thurston
Insights Newsletter
12 October, 2012

Education is valuable and having one should improve your life prospects. But does a generic bachelor’s degree guarantee its owner influence, riches and success? More to the point, is a basic degree the best way to get a job?

Holding a degree has always been a status good, much like a pair of Nike shoes or an iPhone; it marks its possessor as belonging to a certain class. Because of this, middle-class parents tend to encourage their children into tertiary education as a path to a certain social standing.

Currently, 10% of the working-age population are in some form of tertiary education. Unfortunately for would-be graduates, it is a tight job market where many employers are valuing experience over untested graduates (even those with glowing transcripts).

There is little evidence of the market demanding high numbers of commerce and arts graduates, and yet universities are churning graduates by the thousands.

Of course, no one has a right to a job and no one has the obligation to provide you with one.

In a global and interconnected world, the middle class in New Zealand will hollow out as traditional middle-class jobs are outsourced. For instance, architect and drafting jobs are being outsourced to qualified workers overseas.

Moreover, jobs that did not require undergraduate qualifications 20 or even 10 years ago may require them now. The labour market appears to be moving towards a US-style arrangement, where undergraduate degrees are an extension of secondary education. In the United States, it is quite possible that the salesperson who sold you your iPhone holds a liberal arts or similar degree.

So acquiring a degree does not guarantee a job or fulfil its function as a status good.

Although a university education for many is a valuable way to improve their life prospects, it should not trump other educational pursuits. Entrepreneurial and trade skills as well as real-world experience reflect a different, practical sort of intelligence that will always be in demand in any economy – let’s be honest, you can’t outsource a plumber.

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