Statistics from the current Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report some interesting occupational forecasting to year 2018. Of the 30 occupations listed:

• · 13 require a bachelor of arts or higher college degree
• · 5 require an associate of arts degree
• · 10 require only a vocational certification or on the job training

Consider this additional data:

• · In 1970, 77 percent of workers with a bachelor's degree were employed in professional and managerial occupations. By 2000, that had fallen to 60 percent.
• · Of the nearly 1 million new jobs created since hiring turned up in January, about half have been temporary census jobs. Most of the rest are concentrated in such industries as retail, hospitality and temporary staffing, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• · Twenty-five percent of college seniors this year had a job waiting for them upon graduation, up from one in five last year, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
• · The unemployment rate for college graduates stands at 4.7 percent less 50% of the figure for workers with only a high school diploma.
• · Federal statistics for 2008 show that men 25 and older with a bachelor's degree pulled down a median salary of $65,800. That compares with a median of $39,010 for men in the same age group with only a high school diploma.
• · Middle-skilled occupations such as sales, office and administration positions perhaps most readily open to community college graduates have shown little or no growth over the last decade, and they fell sharply during the recession, according to research by David Autor, an economics professor at MIT.
• · Research shows that inflation-adjusted wages of workers with less than a four-year college degree fell steeply between 1979 and 2007, particularly for men.
• · Many employers regard a four-year degree as a must, even for positions that can be handled by high school graduates.
• · The Bureau of Labor statistics predicts some clear winners in the years ahead. Registered nurses, who generally have an associate's degree, will grow by more than 580,000 over the coming decade. The bureau reports biomedical engineers as the fastest-growing occupation, expanding by 72 percent from 2008 to 2018 (but only 16,000 such workers in 2008).

Bottom line? College degrees still help young (and older) adults get better paying jobs than those without a degree.

Source: http://snipurl.com/z8gnz