UNDATED (WKZO-AM) — A study just released by the University of Michigan suggests that employers plan to hire 15 percent more graduates this year than last, especially if they have engineering or computer science degrees.
It will also be a better year for business degrees, but the study also says a good percentage of French literature and Latin majors may find themselves back with the parents soon.
A Kalamazoo economist, however, says getting a four-year college degree isn’t what it’s cracked up to be in terms of job prospects. He says what the country needs is more welders and information technology technicians and fewer business and history majors.
Dr. Brian Long says that the value of a traditional bachelor’s degree is fading through the “dumbing down” of classroom grades and by schools graduating almost every student who chooses easy classes.
“Some of those graduates are doing exceedingly well,” Long said. “Then, there’s that other group that is now saddled with $30,000 student debt, and they’re now working at a minimum wage job trying to figure out what went wrong.”
Long advocates strengthening the nation’s extensive junior college and community college system, in an effort to provide the skilled workers that are needed today.
– John McNeill
