Future Jobs for High School Grads

Want fries with your job? The good news: according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics's latest job growth prediction, the US economy will add millions of jobs for Americans with only a high school diploma.

According to the BLS, there will be 20.4 million more jobs in 2020 than there were in 2010. About 12.8 million of those jobs will require a high school degree or less. Many of those will be clustered in services. The country will need more healthcare aides to look after a rapidly aging population. There will be more work in food preparation, retail, and office administration. The graph below depicts the occupations requiring a high school degree or less that are expected to add the most jobs (from left to right).

The bad news? They don't pay well.

There are a few solidly middle-class jobs tucked in here -- a good salesperson for a wholesaler averages $62,000 a year. An administrative support supervisor takes home more than $50,000 a year. A carpenter makes $43,000. But most of these jobs offer between $18,000 and $30,000 a year. The pay for the jobs at the far left, which will generate the most employment growth, is particularly abysmal.

Jordan Weissmann of The Atlantic has more: Link


It's all a big scam. A degree means precisely nothing. People who get degrees and do not stay up-to-date know virtually nothing. Which is why they periodically make professionals go back for a revised course. But those professionals who are active in the field already know what has changed.

Furthermore a person can "cram" for a test, ace it and forget everything that was on it the next day. Ask someone with a psychology degree if they know who "Phineas Gage" was and they will probably say "Umm, sounds familiar, but do tell."

Its reasonable to think that a person with a vested interest in a subject will retain more than someone who merely studies for the sake of attaining to some vocation. Motive is an integral part of memory formation. We tend to remember facts and events that we regard as globally important. If the fact is only necessary for the sake of passing a test, it can quickly be forgotten when the test is over.
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It could be better and it could be, and has been, much worse for many generations. On the bright side, there are still some reasonably priced vocational programs and community colleges. With a lot of sacrifice--living as cheaply as possible while paying for training as you can, a lot of people will be able to get better jobs in a few years. Sucks that greed has made their load heavier than it should be.
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