And this is a surprise?
More than any other factor analyzed—including race, gender and choice of university—what a person studies determines their odds of getting on a college-level career track. Internships are also critical.
Half of College Grads Are Working Jobs That Don’t Use Their Degrees – WSJ
The number one skill to have is math and/or statistics – quantitative skills, according to the survey. Most humanities grads have not taken math since high school algebra, and this affects their job opportunities. About half of unemployed college grads work in jobs requiring only a high school diploma[1]
The public was sold a story that any college degree was valuable. From about the late 1970s onward, the purpose of a college degree was to filter the huge number of young people born at the peak of the baby boom.
That mantra to get educated continued on up to today where employers and governments are all announcing they will end mandatory college degree requirements. Because today there is a shortage of new young workers. And thus, many recent college grads are having a hard time finding relevant work, plus AI may reduce the need for as many workers in some fields – including computer science!
[1] I don’t have a high school diploma and did not graduate from high school. I was strongly encouraged to leave high school early and start taking college course, which I did. In retrospect, it was completely stupid. I missed my senior year in high school. My first 2 years of college were very tough as I had not mentally matured to be tackling that level of work – coupled with my prior history of traumatic brain injuries (2, including a 5″ skull fracture, as a youth – plus several more, as an adult).
