Less than 50 years ago, people living in the US were just as likely to start a family right out of high school as they were to go to college. Large scale employers hired anyone with a good work ethic, without prior training, concern for their age, or even a resume. Things aren’t the same anymore, and that is because technology has changed how people earn a living. Assembly lines used to be made up of people completing various tasks, and now machines can do the same work a lot more efficiently. So, what are people doing to find good-paying jobs? In addition to going to work for themselves and starting small businesses, a lot more people are earning advanced degrees.
High School Diplomas Aren’t Cutting It Anymore
With a high school diploma, you can find a full-time job, get an apartment, and officially become recognized as a working adult. The only caveat is that most people with high school diplomas don’t tend to make a lot of money at first nowadays. Instead of being able to be approved for a studio or one-bedroom apartment, you are most likely to share a pad with several roommates. Since those with high school diplomas seldom make more than minimum wage, they are not likely to be able to afford cars either. So, while a young person might really enjoy the freedom of being able to call all the shots and be recognized as a working adult, the novelty wears off soon after they learn that they can’t afford much.
Online College Offers Working Professionals More Options
It used to be that going back to school meant that you would have an extremely tight schedule, and have to go directly from your full-time job to a physical college campus. Night school has been a ‘thing’ for a long time, but it also meant that working parents would have to find babysitters, and rides, and have pretty much no time to themselves. Then the first online advanced degrees began appearing. People were skeptical, assuming that online school was akin to an interior education. Then more programs started cropping up, more schools becoming accredited. That’s when people learned that they could get an associates degree online fast and not have to drastically change their lifestyles. The reality is that online school is affordable, it’s convenient, and more working professionals are happy to have multiple options for higher education.
The National Unemployment Rate isn’t Exactly Going Down
Politicians absolutely love to talk about how the policy changes they’ve made have helped to reduce unemployment rates. Ever since the Great Recession of 2008, news reports have underlined how much better the economy is getting. And while they aren’t totally wrong, these reports aren’t 100 percent transparent. Unemployment rates go down when fewer people report that they are out of work. They also decrease when people just plain old give up and stop looking for work. Since the last economic crisis, people have made serious adjustments to their lifestyles, such as putting off a divorce, adult children becoming less likely to move out, and fewer people becoming homeowners. On the surface, lower unemployment rates are a good thing, but the consequence has been the fact that people are overall settling for less.
Employers are Expecting More from the Workforce
As technology has given working professionals more education options, it has also helped employers to fine-tune their hiring and training practices. In short, employers want more out of their workers and they know how to get it. They’re using automation to cut down on the sizes of work crews, depending on psychology tests to find the cream of the crop and even rewriting corporate policies to dissuade staff from coming together and forming cooperative unions. So, for anyone who happens finds a well-paying job without matching credentials, the situation can be highly stressful. The reason is that people without associates, bachelors, or master’s degrees will find that landing another job that pays comparably will be very hard.
More Immigration Equals More Competitiveness
It is also well known that the United States has various visa programs for skilled workers. There are not enough doctors or IT workers in the US, so high paid workers from across the globe come to help fill in the gap. As such, there can become more competition from natives who aren’t measuring up as far as educations or skills go. With a degree, however, workers in the US become more valuable assets. They too can go abroad and earn a living, their potential no longer limited by a lack of education. Realize that some countries have stagnant immigration rates because the natives have the skills that are needed to keep the workforce growing at a steady rate.
Younger Working Professionals Have More Timely and Practical Knowledge
If you go throughout your career without furthering your education, eventually there comes a time when the newer generation comes in knowing more than you do. Suddenly, your computer skills are no match for young adults who spent their entire childhoods working on PCs. Your ability to find and navigate a website and author an email pales in comparison to the eager 18-year-old who types over 100 words per minute. You may have never thought the day would come, but it did. It happens to everyone who doesn’t recognize the fact that they need to keep at it in order to remain competitive in the workforce.
Higher Education Translates into Better Living Wages
In general, professionals can expect to be compensated in direct correlation with their given skills. For example, someone with a degree in IT security is going to be offered a higher starting salary than a professional who took some computer courses in high school. Take into account the recently increased federal minimum wage, which will more than double over the next six years, and only those with certifiably skills can hope to make a livable wage. Blue-collar jobs are becoming harder to find, so the best way to make money is by furthering your education.
An advanced degree is helpful when you go to your supervisor and request a raise. For workers who want to go for a senior-level position, undoubtedly their employers are going to look at their educational backgrounds. All working professionals need to remember that their last certification, the most recent courses they took, and the degrees that they have under their belt, matter the most.