CCAP report on Underemployment of College Grads Grabs Media Attention

As CCAP releases a new study today, the media coverage has already been strong. “Why are Recent College Graduates Underemployed? University Enrollments and Labor-Market Realities” has been discussed in USA Today, National Review, Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education,  CNN Money, and The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, to name a few.

Briefly, the study by Richard Vedder, Christopher Denhart, and Jonathan Robe finds that nearly half of recent college graduates are underemployed, holding jobs that require less than a four-year college degree. That finding, coupled with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, suggests that public policy directs too much state and federal funds to higher education, resulting in overinvestment and burdening graduates with large amounts of student-loan debt.

Instead of ensuring taxi drivers and retail sales clerks hold college degrees (15 percent and 25 percent, respectively), our system of educating students and preparing them to enter the workforce might need a reformation ranging from fewer students at four-year institutions  to alternative methods to verify competency.