College Grads Are Elbowing Aside Less Educated for Jobs

See the link below for a chart illustrating this.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/01/16/College-Grads-Are-Elbowing-Aside-Less-Educated-Jobs

Eric Pianin
The Fiscal Times
January 16, 2014

It’s no secret that young Americans with a college degree have an easier time finding jobs than those with only a high school diploma. Last year, the unemployment rate for young adults with only a high school diploma was almost 10 percentage points higher than for those with a bachelor’s degree.

Yet their success in the job market often came from lowering their sights and elbowing aside less educated people to take lower-skilled positions they once might not have pursued. In what is being called the “Great Squeeze,” college graduates are squeezing out other young adults with more modest educational records.

Since 2009, many of the occupations with the fastest employment gains for young people have been lower-skill jobs that typically pay less, according to a new report by economist Diana G. Carew of the Progressive Policy Institute.

Production, health care support and food preparation and serving occupations were the three main occupational groups to see gains for young Americans across all levels of educational attainment. The downside is that all three groups have mean hourly earnings significantly lower than the national average for all occupations.

Notably, young college graduates saw a 15 percent increase in office and administrative employment while more generally employment in this group declined, the report stated. “This is consistent with the argument that young college graduates are struggling with high underemployment,” Carew wrote – and in the process are squeezing their less educated rivals aside.

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A recently released study by the organization called Young Invincibles, a national research and advocacy group for young Americans, concludes that the employment crisis among young people is taking its toll on federal and state governments in the form of lost tax revenue and social welfare costs. Among the key findings of the new report: The total annual cost to federal and state governments for severely high unemployment rates among 18-to-34-year-olds is almost $8.9 billion.

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