Skip to footer

Unemployment gap in education shrinks in US

Unemployment gap based on levels of education is wide in the United states. That unemployment gap is still quite large, but it got smaller in 2011.

|
Bebeto Matthews/AP/File
In this file photo, job seekers lineup to attend a job fair held by JobEXPO, a company hosting hiring events, in New York. The education gap in unemployment in the US is shrinking, though still very high.

In March last year I discussed that the United States has an unusually large gap in rates of employment and unemployment based on the level of education. In most countries such data aren't available, but in two Asian countries where it is available, South Korea and Taiwan, there was virtually no difference at all, at least in unemployment.

The U.S. gap remains very large, but it has actually dropped during the latest year. Between January 2011 and January 2012, the unemployment rate dropped by 1.2 percentage points for high school dropouts from 14.3% to 13.1%, 1 percentage point for people with only a high school diploma from 9.4% to 8.4%, 0.9 percentage points for people with "some college" from 8.1% to 7.2% while being unchanged at 4.2% for people with a bachelor's degree or more.

The trends in the participation rate (which mostly reflects trends in "hidden" unemployment) reinforces these trends, so the difference in the changes for employment rates is even bigger. The employment rate for high school dropouts rose by 1.1 percentage points from 38.6% to 39.7%, for people with only a high school diploma it was unchanged at 54.6%, for people with "some college" it fell from 64.5% to 64.2% while the employment rate for people with a bachelor's degree or more fell from 73.2% to 72.4%.

Given that the big gap was for reasons I explained in my original post mostly irrational, it is good that this convergence happens, at least to the extent that it reflects higher employment and lower unemployment among people with little education. While it is natural that people with a higher education should on average earn more, this should manifest itself in terms of higher wages or salaries for highly educated compared to persons with little education, not higher unemployment for people with little education.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Unemployment gap in education shrinks in US
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Stefan-Karlsson/2012/0220/Unemployment-gap-in-education-shrinks-in-US
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe