Giving Compass' Take:
- Laura Spitalniak reports on a study predicting that good jobs for workers with bachelor's degrees will increase in number by 2031.
- How can donors help make higher education more accessible and equitable to ensure that marginalized communities share in this growth in good jobs?
- Learn more about key issues in education and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on education in your area.
What is Giving Compass?
We connect donors to learning resources and ways to support community-led solutions. Learn more about us.
Georgetown University researchers expect 15 million more good jobs for workers with four-year degrees will be created in the decade following 2021.
The report outlines three pathways to good jobs — one for workers with a high school diploma or less, one for those who completed some college credit, a short-term program or an associate degree, and one for graduates of bachelor’s programs and beyond.
Researchers offer an optimistic outlook for the U.S. workforce, estimating that 62% of positions in 2031 will meet the criteria to be considered good jobs. That would be an increase of 3 percentage points from 2021.
A majority of the future’s good jobs lie at the end of the bachelor’s degree pathway, according to Artem Gulish, senior federal policy advisor at Georgetown CEW and co-author of the report.
“Bachelor’s and graduate degrees will remain dominant and even grow into the future,” he said. In 2031, two-thirds of all good jobs will require a four-year degree or more, compared with 59% in 2021.
About 8 out of 10 jobs requiring at least a bachelor’s degree will qualify as good, according to Georgetown CEW.
The Future of Good Jobs for Workers with Four-Year Degrees
Half of the jobs available to workers with more education than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree — described by the report as being on the “middle skills” pathway — will meet CEW’s earning thresholds for good jobs. That will be true for just over a third of positions for those with a high school diploma or less.
The report offers colleges a way to underscore their value at a time when one-third of U.S. adults report having little to no confidence in higher education.
But institutions should still expect to need to increase their financial accessibility.
“Educational institutions need to be thinking about costs — particularly at the four-year level — to make it more viable for more students to attend without fully burdensome debt,” said Catherine Morris, senior editor and writer at Georgetown CEW and co-author of the report.
Read the full article about the future of good jobs by Laura Spitalniak at HR Dive.