The college degree has become the new high school degree

The Washington Post reports:

You’ve heard of grade inflation? Welcome to the world of degree inflation.

A new report finds that employers are increasingly requiring a bachelor’s degree for positions that didn’t used to require baccalaureate education. A college degree, in other words, is becoming the new high school diploma: the minimum credential required to get even the most basic, entry-level job.


The report is from Burning Glass, a labor market analytics company that mines millions of online job postings. The company found that a wide range of jobs — in management, administration, sales and other fields — are undergoing “upcredentialing,” or degree inflation. As examples, just 25 percent of people employed as insurance clerks have a BA, but twice that percentage of insurance-clerk job ads require one. Among executive secretaries and executive assistants, 19 percent of job-holders have degrees, but 65 percent of job postings mandate them.

As the government subsidizes more people to go to college: you get an excess supply of college graduates. If you are being squeezed out the job market by college graduates, just remember the federal government really is your enemy. Without Uncle Sugar , the market place would have determined how many people should have gone to college making life much easier for those who don't have a college degree.