Nearly half of Americans say having a college degree is less important now than it was 20 years ago
As I have long noted, the rise of college began in the 1960s due to education deferments for the military draft of male conscripts. Staying in college, including onto grad school, was away for young men to avoid the military draft (young women are exempt from the draft). This coincided with the peak of the baby boom, born in about 1959-1960, entering the job marketing 20 years later or about 1980 – and all competing with one another for jobs.
The college degree became the competitive edge – and we were off to the races as college programs expanded across the country with a mantra that everyone should have a college degree.
Fast forward to the present and now we have a shortage of labor looming due to the shrinking young cohort, as our fertility rate has fallen, now, to 1.62 in 2023.
With demand for labor high, and the supply low, today’s Gen Z is the best possible world for job opportunities and good pay – even without college degrees. Couple that with the last ten years of rapid tuition hikes and the negative return on investment, more and more people are questioning the value of a college education. And they are concluding that college may no longer make sense due to the changes in demographics and the high costs of education.
