College Degrees: No Longer Recession-Proof

In this recession, even a college degree won't protect you from joblessness.

The recession is proving that even a college degree does not protect you from joblessness. This may fly in the face of the conventional wisdom but the evidence backs it up. A chart from a Cleveland Federal Reserve report that has been flagged down by the Huffington Post shows very clearly that once someone with a degree is unemployed, that they can be out of a job for just as long as someone who only has a high school diploma:

This is despite the constant reiteration that a college degree is a good investment because there is a lower unemployment rate among degree holders. An Oregon Employment Department statement gives a typical expression of the conventional wisdom:

Nationally, college graduates with bachelor's degrees fared better in the economic downturn than others, with an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent in 2009, compared with all persons at 9.3 percent

What’s clear is that this ignores the reality that for those who are unemployed, a college degree may not significantly change your chances of getting hired.  Instead, the current job market is an equal opportunity provider of joblessness.

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