Between 2011 and 2021, the percentage of people aged 25 and older who completed a bachelor’s degree or higher increased by 7.5 percentage points from 30.4% to 37.9%, according to the latest data from the Census Bureau.
But the tight labor market, combined with the high cost of college and a pandemic-era re-assessment of work, has led both employers and job-seekers to question the conventional wisdom of higher education for everyone.
Employers are finding that the best workers may be skilled in other ways than a formal education – and that jobs are easier to fill without the default demand of a formal degree.
