The NY Times reports that a college degree is becoming the new high school diploma: the new minimum requirement for getting even the lowest-level job. Many jobs that didn’t require a diploma years ago — positions like dental hygienists, cargo agents, clerks and claims adjusters — increasingly requiring a college degree. From the point of view of business, with so many people going to college now, those who do not graduate are often assumed to be unambitious or less capable. ‘When you get 800 résumés for every job ad, you need to weed them out somehow,’ says Suzanne Manzagol. A study by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce found that more than 2.2 million jobs that require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree have been created (PDF) since the 2007 start of the recession. At the same time, jobs that require only a high school diploma have decreased by 5.8 million in that same time. ‘It is a tough job market for college graduates but far worse for those without a college education,’ says Anthony P. Carnevale, co-author of the report. ‘At a time when more and more people are debating the value of post-secondary education, this data shows that your chances of being unemployed increase dramatically without a college degree.’ Even if they are not exactly applying the knowledge they gained in their political science, finance and fashion marketing classes, young graduates say they are grateful for even the rotest of rote office work they have been given. ‘It sure beats washing cars,’ says Georgia State University graduate Landon Crider, 24, an in-house courier who, for $10 an hour, ferries documents back and forth between the courthouse and his company’s office.
