Looking for a job? Better off without college?

Posted at 2:55 PM on September 1, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education

If your goal right now is a job in Minnesota, you are better off without a college degree.

That's my conclusion after coming across this nugget from the state labor department's most recent job vacancy survey:

44 percent of vacancies required some level of post-secondary education or training beyond a high school diploma. This means that the majority of vacancies required no education beyond a high school diploma or equivalent. (emphasis mine)

There's no doubt that people with college degrees can earn significantly more over a lifetime than those whose education stops at high school.

But I would have expected education to pay a huge premium in such a deep recession. Displaced Minnesotans have been heading for college in big numbers hoping to retrain.

Instead, we find the majority of job openings in Minnesota don't require more than a high school diploma. What do we make of that?

We've weighed the is-college-worth-it issue in a few posts this summer ("What's college good for these days" and "Is college worth the money?"). It was the topic of USA Today's cover story a couple days ago.

I'm trying to get more data and perspective on this from folks at the state who collect and analyze data. I'll post what I get.

You can help by telling us what you're seeing in Minnesota's job market these days. And check out the map below for what sources in our Public Insight Network are telling us about Minnesota's job climate.

UPDATE: Check out this post for updated data.

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories