Millions of vacant jobs because of ‘harebrained’ decisions and college push

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Posted on 09/30/2024 7:59:27 PM PDT by anthropocene_x

As of July 2024, the American economy had 7.7 million job openings. This is up from less than 5 million a decade ago.

In a recent interview Mike Rowe, the well-known host of “Dirty Jobs” said the pressure on young people to get expensive college degrees combined with the “harebrained” decision to pull shop class out of high school has resulted in an enormous debt burden and a widening skills gap.

Rowe believes many of the vacant positions are for what he calls “dirty jobs” — blue collar work that requires training and experience in the trades rather than the traditional four-year college degree.

“There's nothing wrong with a four-year degree,” he said. “But in 1984, when the dust settled, two years at community college and two years at university [cost] $12,400. Today, same schools, same course load, $95,000. So, never in the history of Western civilization has anything become more expensive more quickly than this four-year degree. And yet, and yet, the pressure we've put on kids to get one cost be damned is scandalous.”

(Excerpt) Read more at moneywise.com ...

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