A new study suggests the benefits of a college degree are deteriorating—even for traditionally high-paying majors.
Data published by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that, during a recession, graduates see a 10 percent reduction in earnings during their first year in the job market.
But, according to a write-up by research organization the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, there’s an intriguing change from past years. Though pursuing a high-earning major (say, engineering rather than psychology) once reliably shielded some college graduates from the effects of the recession, the new study revealed that the relative benefit of those high-earning degrees is also dwindling.
The value of a college degree in a job market saturated with unemployed bachelors degrees has been in question for some time. From 2008 to 2012, the number of adults who considered college a worthwhile investment fell from 81 percent to 57 percent.
Some college skeptics tend to blame this on 20-somethings choosing to study “underwater basket-weaving” instead of accounting. But even the conventional wisdom of these types, who hope to see every college student pursuing “real degrees” in the hard sciences, may soon be outdated.
