BACHELOR’S DEGREE HOLDERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HAVE …

PUBLIC UNIVERSITY VALUES

How does a college degree improve graduates' employment and earnings potential?

The evidence that a college degree significantly improves one's employment prospects and earnings potential is overwhelming. Bachelor's degree holders are half as likely to be unemployed as their peers who only have a high school degree and they make $1 million in additional earnings on average over their lifetime.1,2

Annual Median Earnings for Workers Aged 22?27

$43,000

BOLSTERED PROSPECTS

Sixty percent of bachelor's degrees in the United States are awarded by public institutions. College-educated workers

$25,500

enjoy a substantial earnings premium. On an annual basis,

bachelor's degree holders earn about $32,000 more than those whose highest degree is a high school diploma.3 The earnings gap between college graduates and those with

HIGH SCHOOL DEGREE HOLDERS

less education continues to widen. Today, Millennials with

a high school diploma earn 62 percent of what the typical

college graduate earns.4 In 2016, recent graduates' income

reached its highest level in over a decade--a median of $43,000 a year for bachelor's

degree holders aged 22?27. For high school graduates the same age, median earnings

are $25,000 a year.5

Recent college graduates also weathered the Great Recession better than their peers with a high school diploma. When unemployment reached its peak in 2010, recent college graduates experienced an unemployment rate of 6.9 percent, compared with a jobless rate of 15.8 percent for all young workers. Today, the jobless rate for bachelor's degree holders is just 2.5 percent.6 And the incidence of poverty among bachelor's degree holders is 3.5 times lower than it is for those who hold high school degrees.7

BACHELOR'S DEGREE HOLDERS

3.5x

LOWER POVERTY RATE FOR BACHELOR'S DEGREE HOLDERS VERSUS THOSE WITH ONLY A HIGH SCHOOL DEGREE

A college education is expected to become even more valuable. Some 99 percent of jobs created since the recession went to individuals with at least some postsecondary education.8

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ADDITIONAL BENEFITS TO GRADUATES

Of course, a college education is about more than just securing a job and a steady income. Consider health and safety, prerequisites for leading a fulfilling life. Bachelor's degree holders are 47 percent more likely to have health insurance provided through their job and their employers contribute 74 percent more to their health coverage. Life expectancy is also longer for those who attend college. Studies suggest that those who have attended at least some college can expect to live seven years longer than their peers with no postsecondary education.3

15.7%

YOUNG WORKERS WITH HIGH

SCHOOL DEGREE

Weathering Economic Downturns:

Jobless Rates at the Peak of

the Great Recession

9.6%

6.8%

5%

YOUNG

ALL

BACHELOR'S ALL BACHELOR'S

WORKERS

DEGREE HOLDERS DEGREE HOLDERS

BACHELOR'S DEGREE HOLDERS ARE

47%

MORE LIKELY TO HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE THROUGH THEIR JOBS THAN THOSE HOLDING HIGH SCHOOL DEGREES

AND THEIR EMPLOYERS CONTRIBUTE

74%

MORE TO THEIR HEALTH COVERAGE.

HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA $1,304,000

SOME COLLEGE

$1,547,000

Return on Investment: Lifetime Earnings

by Level of Education

ASSOCIATE'S DEGREE

$1,727,000

BACHELOR'S DEGREE

$2,268,000

ADVANCED DEGREE

Source: Carnevale, Rose and Cheah, "The College Payoff," Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

$2,671,000

1. Abel and Deitz, "Do the Benefits of College Still Outweigh the Costs," Current Issues in Economics and Finance, 2014. 2. Timiraos and Zumbrun "The July Jobs Report in 15 Charts," Wall Street Journal, 2016. 3. Trostel, Lumina Foundation, "It's Not Just the Money," 2015. 4. Pew Research Center, The Rising Cost of Not Going to College, 2014. 5. Zumbrun, "Income for Recent Graduates the Highest in Over a Decade," Wall Street Journal. 6. "The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates," The Federal Reserve Bank of New York." 7. Trostel, Lumina Foundation, "It's Not Just the Money," 2015. 8. Carnevale, Jayasundera & Gulish, "America's Divided Recovery: College Haves and Have Nots," 2016.

w w w.aplu.or g / P ublicU Value s

@APLU_News

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