College is the best employment chance you have, statistically speaking

There’s a lot of discussion about whether college is worth it or not. It’s definitely pricier than it used to be, and the white collar job market is more crowded than ever before.

Despite all that, however, a college degree is still your best bet at maintaining gainful employment over the mid- and long-term. Waves of unemployment come every 10-15 years.

It’s worth your while to attend—here’s why.

College graduates have lower unemployment rates

The pandemic has caused many people to lose their jobs. The 2008 financial crisis had the same result 12 years earlier.

The lesson? Recessions happen.

The most vulnerable among us get hit hard in recessions, and unemployment is no joke. It makes sense to protect yourself from unemployment as much as possible because recessions happen cyclically—and for reference, the last recessions before 2008 occurred around 2000 and 1990. They come around pretty frequently.

The research says lower unemployment rates make college worth it.

So, how much better are your employment chances with a bachelor’s degree? Here’s what unemployment looked like at the peak of the 2009-2008 recession:

• High school dropouts: 15%
• High school graduates: 9.5%
• College dropouts: 8%
• College graduates: 5%

Those who held bachelor’s degrees experienced half of the unemployment rate that regular high school graduates did when they needed jobs the most.

College graduates get paid more

It’s true. A bachelor’s degree will net you between $900,000 and $1,000,000 in additional lifetime income, on average.

Even if it takes $100,000 to get through college, you’ll have $800,000 or $900,000 additional income over the course of your life (statistically speaking).

It’s easy for successful entrepreneurs to talk about dropping out of college, but that’s not necessarily the best life decision for many reasons:

• At 18 you probably don’t know what you want to do for a living, yet.
• Recent high school graduates don’t have much money for a venture.
• You don’t get to learn much about the world or new ideas before college.
• Starting a business usually takes experience

Plenty of startup founders went to college and worked to gain experience first. You just hear about the college dropouts more because they make for better headlines.

Off-shored labor is the norm, not an exception

More and more unskilled labor jobs are moving out of the United States and Canada. It’s not a secret and it’s been happening for 30 years or more—yet some people still say you should just skip college and try to start a business.

But what happens if that entrepreneurial dream fails, as 60% of new American businesses do within the first 5 years?

You’ll look for a job, that’s what.

But the number of plants hiring for unskilled labor continues to shrink, which means that every remaining position becomes extremely competitive. There are simply too many people and too few positions for that kind of work.

That’s when it’s handy to have a bachelor’s degree. It provides a greater measure of job security, even if you plan to start your own business one day.

Work automation is coming

According to the richest philanthropist in America, around two-thirds of all jobs in the United States will need some form of education beyond high school—and that number is only likely to rise as more and more unskilled labor is off-shored, too.

You can bet that the simplest jobs will be automated first. After that it will be the knowledge-based jobs that focus on repeatable tasks (in time). Getting a bachelor’s degree goes a lot farther toward insulating you from automation than a high school diploma ever could. The skills and knowledge you gain make you far more adaptable to shifting market forces.

Getting a degree also opens the door to roles that are less prone to automation by nature. These roles require creativity, strategy, and specialized knowledge. Parts of those roles will be automated, but the roles will not disappear.

In short: getting a college degree protects you from unemployment in all of its forms: recessions, off-shored labor, and workplace automation.