Americans Without Degrees Are Having One of the Best Job Markets in Years

19 pointsposted 12 hours ago
by JumpCrisscross
(wsj.com)

13 Comments

ggm

11 hours ago

The real story is about lifetime earnings and related outcomes in pension/Roth/401k and in health benefits.

Not that there's nothing here: Degree is over-valued as a life goal in a time where we no longer really value tertiary education the way we should, and charge the kind of for-profit costs (and loan tail) to get one.

Many non-degree career paths incur significant OHS risk and limits to your work life as a fit adult. Some degree paths to too: Physiotherapists cannot go on doing that kind of body-manipulation work forever without an effect on themselves, but if you plot lifetime earnings in medical against construction labour, it gets complicated fast.

hashbig

8 hours ago

> Physiotherapists cannot go on doing that kind of body-manipulation work forever without an effect on themselves

Physiotherapists don't usually manipulate patients, you're probably thinking of chiropractors. Even then, the amount of physical strain the manipulation puts on their body is minimal and can be adapted to.

ggm

8 hours ago

I'm not talking about chiropractors. Physiotherapists I see, and have seen regularly for over 15 years all say the work includes physically demanding postural mechanics helping clients.

orwin

5 hours ago

They are probably older physiotherapists, or you have particular issues that requires it (parastesias, displaced muscles or ligaments, dropping organs). Modern physiotherapy tries to limit body manipulation to a minimum and will always prefer to give you exercises if possible (sources: 5 of my cousins are physiotherapists, those who couldn't become doctor mostly)

bayarearefugee

8 hours ago

> you're probably thinking of chiropractors. Even then, the amount of physical strain the manipulation puts on their body is minimal and can be adapted to.

True.

By way of comparison it is much more damaging on your body to get your neck broken by a fake doctor than it is to be a fake doctor who breaks people's necks for a living.

pinkmuffinere

9 hours ago

> Degree is over-valued as a life goal in a time where we no longer really value tertiary education the way we should

What does “the way that we should” mean here? Are you disagreeing with the free market valuation of a good? If not the equilibrium created by supply and demand, what do you propose instead?

nothercastle

9 hours ago

Seems like a good recipe for a long form post.

Nail2680

9 hours ago

As an american with a degree and years of experience and even a PhD, it is hard to move jobs.

sleepyguy

11 hours ago

We have long ago crossed the point where a contractor/H1B from India is cheaper and can be forced to work longer hours has replaced the majority of STEM graduates who would have traditionally filled these roles. Just look at the campuses of all the big players (MSFT, AMZN, APPL, META, etc) and you'll see that Indians make up the majority of employees (H1B/Contractors).

At the moment they are not taking the Walmart, Safeway, Starbucks, McDonald's, jobs. So it makes sense that these kids without degrees are being employed at higher rates.

Junk away

dj_rock

10 hours ago

In Canada they are.

sleepyguy

9 hours ago

Yes, I have heard (even this far south) that they have taken over the Tim Hortons and Popeye's franchises in Canada. What happened in Canada over the last 30-40 years is now occurring in the USA. North Texas has been overrun with 10's of 1000's of Indians and it has been predicted that they will be the largest visible minority in Texas displacing Hispanics. I can only imagine that in the next few decades they will make up the largest group of non-Americans in the USA, basically 10's of millions of them.