Hundreds of thousands of Master's degree holders, PhDs on food stamps

[donnay]

Hundreds of thousands of Master's degree holders, PhDs on food stamps


Saturday, February 02, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer

Shelling out tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for higher education may no longer be the surefire path to a great career that it used to be. A recent report compiled by the education resource group OnlineColleges.net found that more than 300,000 Americans with either Master's degrees or Ph.D.s were receiving food stamps in 2010 -- and many more are likely on some form of government assistance today as economic conditions since that time have only continued to worsen.

To give a point of reference as to how bad the situation truly is, there were fewer than 100,000 Americans with Master's degrees or Ph.D.s on food stamps in 2007, which means the overall number of people with extensive college educations on government assistance more than tripled in just three years. And if this trend continued at the same rate between 2010 and 2013, the total number of college educated on government assistance today has easily eclipsed more than half a million, and with no end in sight.

According to the latest government data, more than 5,000 people working right now as custodians have Ph.D.s they are not using, and another more than 100,000 people with at least a bachelor's degree currently work in some sort of custodial position. A whopping 80,000-or-so people with at least a bachelor's degree also currently work as attendants at amusement parks and other recreational facilities, while nearly 320,000 college graduates currently work as servers at restaurants and cafes.

"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly one in three college graduates works in a job the Labor Department says requires less than a bachelor's degree," explains an infographic created by OnlineColleges.net. You can view that infographic here:
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2013/01/08/americas-phds-on-food-stamps/

Not enough jobs or not enough intuition?

As you will clearly see, the numbers on the graph are shocking, to say the least. They point to a very serious problem either with our educational system or with our economic system, or both. Getting a Master's degree or a Ph.D. typically takes a lot of time, effort, and money -- so why are an increasing number of educated folks finding it so difficult to get a job in their field that they are having to resort to menial labor positions for which they are overqualified?

The most obvious answer is that economic conditions have become so dire that there simply are not enough available high-paying positions out there for people with college educations. And for many college graduates and people with Ph.D.s, the prospect of finding a job in their field is just unusually slim, perhaps due to the fact that their area of study was too narrow and impractical. Getting a Master's degree in Native American studies, for instance, will more than likely not generate the same level or volume of high-paying jobs as, say, a Master's degree in biology would.

Another possible explanation is that today's college graduates simply do not possess the same level of drive and ingenuity that college graduates from previous generations had. This is merely speculation, of course, but it seems as though many college graduates lack the guidance and know-how to successfully navigate the working world following graduation. What do you think the primary reasons are that an increasing number of college graduates are unable to find well-paying jobs in their appropriate fields?

Sources for this article include:

http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2013/01/08/americas-phds-on-food-stamps/

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038933_college_graduates_food_stamps_unemployment.html#ixzz2JnvhSbTe

 

[DamianTV]

Say hello to the new class of citizen: The Educated Poor

 

[fr33]

I know of some available jobs for PHD's but it stands for post hole diggers.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

But, but, but ...there aren't any educated Americans! We must import educated workers. Americans are too stupid. If we just spend an extra trillion dollars on the Department of Education, then maybe Americans can become intelligent. Or maybe not.

 

[robmpreston]

This is what happens when you get a worthless degree. Finally finished mine in December, got a job right away and just now took another job and have had 4 offers in 5 interviews... sigh.

 

[tttppp]

These colleges should do a better job of career counselling. They shouldnt be pushing kids into glamourous careers with no jobs. They should be up front about posted job openings and the competition. But most importantly, the schools should close their doors and let the private sector do the educating.

 

[tttppp]

This is what happens when you get a worthless degree. Finally finished mine in December, got a job right away and just now took another job and have had 4 offers in 5 interviews... sigh.

Thats true. At my school there were some fields where kids got offers well before they graduated. Then the majority never got a job in their field.

 

[fr33]

I have nephew that thinks going to a community college for "classes", while he has no major or any career field plans, is going to get him somewhere other than debt. They drill this higher education stuff into their minds so much that it's all they think about.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

This is what happens when you get a worthless degree. Finally finished mine in December, got a job right away and just now took another job and have had 4 offers in 5 interviews... sigh.

What was your major?

 

[KCIndy]

This is what happens when you get a worthless degree. Finally finished mine in December, got a job right away and just now took another job and have had 4 offers in 5 interviews... sigh.

What is your degree?

 

[CPUd]

The only real difference between now and just a few years ago is that employers are paying more attention to what type of degree, and where they got it. I've seen a number of people going back for a 2nd degree when their 1st was a BFA or something they got from a for-profit school with accreditation issues (like the commercials you still see running in the middle of the day alongside the worker's comp lawyers).

If you get a degree from a "hard" program like Math or Engineering, from a traditional school, you are not gonna have a hard time getting something in your field. From what I've seen firsthand, most new graduates from such programs were hired their last semester or 2 before graduating.

 

[RickyJ]

What do you think the primary reasons are that an increasing number of college graduates are unable to find well-paying jobs in their appropriate fields?

I will give you the answer I think to be the correct one, however I am only going on my personal experience and reading the damn news about this for the last 20 plus years! So of course I may not be qualified to give a good answer on this.

Out-sourcing and in-sourcing. That's it, I could go into to details about it, but don't desire to do so right now. Most of the jobs are still at these companies, they just prefer to not hire Americans.

 

[donnay]

I will give you the answer I think to be the correct one, however I am only going on my personal experience and reading the damn news about this for the last 20 plus years! So of course I may not be qualified to give a good answer on this.

Out-sourcing and in-sourcing. That's it, I could go into to details about it, but don't desire to do so right now. Most of the jobs are still at these companies, they just prefer to not hire Americans.

I agree. They (Corporations) are actively helping to implode this economy and put people in the poor house in the process. Colleges are literally making people mortgage their lives, all for a phony fairy-tale about the American Dream. George Carlin was spot on:

 

[itshappening]

Schiff regularly says when interviewed "the worst thing you can do if you run a business in America is to hire ", he cites the costs and regulations and advises businesses to hire abroad or hire as less people as possible.

 

[RickyJ]

I agree. They (Corporations) are actively helping to implode this economy and put people in the poor house in the process. Colleges are literally making people mortgage their lives, all for a phony fairy-tale about the American Dream. George Carlin was spot on:

George Carlin's language sucks and the audience clapping about it and cheering it on sucked even more!

He is right that most political leaders don't really care about us, because they know they don't owe their jobs to us, they owe it to those that really put them in office and can take them out of office anytime if they don't perform as "requested." We do not have a real free independent press in America to report what is going on and who is really controlling America because the puppet masters control all of the major media outlets!

When I see reporters on the news reporting BS, I wonder if they really believe it or if they know it is a lie but put on a happy face and just report it for the money. I mean the female BBC reporter reporting that WTC7 had collapsed when it was standing right behind her! It is kind of obvious there she was reading from a script and probably didn't have an idea where the WTC7 building was or even what it looked liked. The BBC got away with it though. They never revealed their sources and still act like it was nothing when it was a major screw up! You can literally get away with murder if you control the press. Mass perception, even when it is a lie, becomes the "truth" for most people. Once it is established as "truth" for the majority of people then it can be very hard to get them to change their minds about it especially when they are still plugged into the same media outlets for their "news."

 

[RickyJ]

Schiff regularly says when interviewed "the worst thing you can do if you run a business in America is to hire ", he cites the costs and regulations and advises businesses to hire abroad or hire as less people as possible.

Is that how GE gets away with paying a 2.3% tax rate over the last decade, because of all the costs and regulations? Corporations know the "loopholes" and to think that regulations are the reason to not hire Americans is ignoring that reality.

 

[pochy1776]

Get a PhD in Biomedical science and life would actually feel good. Good hard science is usually funded by the NIH or NASA. Even then they spend too much. Hell, I am working towards my BS so that i could go somewhere.

Too be honest, Don;t get a PhD in the social "sciences" or English

 

[KrokHead]

American culture has a problem, on the whole we're ignorant, and with more education we're still ignorant. Further education does virtually nothing to prepare most people for the jobs they need to have.

 

[itshappening]

Is that how GE gets away with paying a 2.3% tax rate over the last decade, because of all the costs and regulations? Corporations know the "loopholes" and to think that regulations are the reason to not hire Americans is ignoring that reality.

they're paying 2.3% on reported profits but when they hire they have to follow all sorts of federal and state regulations and pay payroll taxes so the "cost" of the employee is higher than it ought to be and a lot higher than elsewhere in the world

 

[Intoxiklown]

If you get a degree from a "hard" program like Math or Engineering, from a traditional school, you are not gonna have a hard time getting something in your field. From what I've seen firsthand, most new graduates from such programs were hired their last semester or 2 before graduating.

Mechanical or electrical engineer are great for manufacturing fields with the larger companies. Or, do like me and get into automation robots (yes, I'm a job killer). The only college I have is from correspondance courses I took in the Army for promotion points. I got a job as an $8 an hour manual drill press operator in a CNC machine shop, thought they robots were cool, and started learning the machines and bots. Now facilities send head hunters after me as I have gotten into management, and am also well versed in applied automation.