Obviously, if Beaudry et al right, this is ferociously depressing news. It suggests that we’re pushing more and more people into (more and more expensive) college programs, even as the number of jobs in which they can use those skills has declined. A growing number of students may be in a credentialling arms race to gain access to routine service jobs. Or maybe the productivity of our nation’s wait staff is spiking as more skilled workers flood into these jobs.
And as evidence, McDonald’s is now requiring a college degree to be a cashier. And it’s positively destroying the low-skilled workers. This isn’t going to end well.
[Update on Friday]
OK, so it turns out that the McDonald’s help-wanted ad was erroneous. But the fact that it was believable should concern, and it may in fact be a sign of things to come.
The country has gone insane.
I don’t think all McDonald’s restaurants (almost all owned by franchisees) have a BA requirement for cashiers yet, just that one in Mass. Give them time.
About 20 years ago, people were saying that a high school diploma qualified you for a job where you got to ask people, “Do you want fries with that?” A BA degree, especially in non-STEM fields, qualified people to ask, “Would you like a muffin with your latte?” Those are beginning to look like good times. If things continue the way they’re going, you’ll need a BA to work fast food. Starbucks will require an MA. Those with only a high school diploma (or none) will be unemployable for lack of the very expensive pieces of paper saying you spent tens of thousands of dollars (if not hundreds of thousands of dollars) attending college.
rickl is right. The country has gone insane.
Those with only a high school diploma (or none) will be unemployable for lack of the very expensive pieces of paper saying you
spentborrowed tens of thousands of dollars (if not hundreds of thousands of dollars) attending college.FIFY.
In colonial America, indentured servants typically spent seven years or so working to buy their freedom. What are we looking at here? Twenty years? Thirty? More?
They spent the money regardless of whether they saved for college or took out loans. Those that took out large student loans to get worthless degrees are not much different from those who spend a lot of money buying lottery tickets. It’s a self-inflicted tax on people who are bad at math.
“evodemce”?
PS: your filtering software is too picky!
Two *words*: Vo-Tech. Outsource that.
Hmmm, that should be: “Offshore that.” I blame the racist sun’s position below the yardarm and cheap bourbon n branch.
More likely the person filling out the online form for that job site didn’t understand the question “Studies Level” ?
That said when the supply is greater than demand firms will be picky. Just free market economics at work 🙂
McDonalds is now requiring a college degree to be a cashier.
No, it’s not. That was corrected by a later update.
The Examiner does not require a degree in fact checking.
I expect the market for college degrees to start dropping in the near future.
Competitive businesses will find better screening methods that don’t necessarily involve hiring people stupid enough to borrow a boatload of money to get a degree in beer pong. A student that actually studies in high school and pays attention on the job will be worth more at 22 than the BA with no experience. Those that don’t pay attention will be in trouble whether they have HS or BA.
The college grads could always go back to school for year at their community college, get a welding certificate and make $18 to $25 an hour, until their degrees are needed again. It may not be what they ‘want’ to do, but there’s a need for folks to do welding, pipe fitting, and just about every kind of metal work, nationwide.
The mines in Nevada are so desperate for workers they are paying the tuition (scholarships) for students to take training in fields like welding, diesel mechanics, millwright, etc. All they require is that students work for them for at least two years. Starting salaries are in the range of $65,000 to $70,000. Of course the work is a bit more difficult that McDonalds…
Again, supply and demand.
Even McDonads needs employees who are not Complete And Total Morons. And McDonalds is not allowed to give prospective employees IQ tests. So, plan A: engage in enough personal interaction with each prospective employee to reliably determine whether they are in fact a Complete And Total Moron, plan B: require a diploma from a school that generally flunks out Complete And Total Morons, or plan C: come up with something new and clever and hope it works and survives the inevitable court challenge by the morons.
Plan B is easier. And High Schools don’t flunk out morons any more. So, yeah, I’m kind of expecting more of this sort of thing to come.
And don’t forget, there are college programs for those wanting to be a janitor. An Associate’s degree. Some years back, in-between design jobs, I was working a few janitorial jobs to pay the cat food bills. My supervisor, who knew that I was hoping to get back into design, showed me an ad for hiring graduates of a 2 year program in janitorial work. He wasn’t impressed…
The way things are going, I’m wondering if staying with mechanical design was the smart move?
The big question with any field is if its possible to outsource to China, Brazil or India. Once the Law firms found they could hire lawyers in India to do the routine work of writing documents and researching for a tenth of the price of U.S. graduates the demand for law schools graduates declined quickly.
Speaking only of my field(mechanical design), I’ve had the misfortune to work with cheap technical staff imported from India, and seen engineering drawings generated by other 3rd world countries(Nigeria, The Phillipines, South Africa) . The results are pretty horrific, which is one reason why some of this work is coming back to the US. Brazil seems to be an exception; the few drawings and CAD models I’ve seen and used from there are first rate.
Some low end work can be safely outsourced offshore, but there is truth in the old saying you get what you pay for. Some very old 2D drawings were divided into two groups by one of my former clients. One group was sent to Mexico, and the other was given to a group of American contractors. Both groups were tasked with converting the drawings into modern 3D parametric models and drawings on a high end CAD system (Unigraphics). The Mexicans took longer, and most of the files were unusable or filled with errors. We were more expensive in the short run, but our work was usable almost immediately.
Ted,
I am not surprised to hear that as you get what you pay for. I know firms in other areas, like call centers for tech support, are also being returned the U.S. (a process called “on-shoring”).
I personally suspect some of the problems Boeing has suffered as been from out shoring work on the B 787.
“Find a career that you love which will afford you the lifestyle you want”
None of my kids (so far) are college material, and if they are, community college would be their first stop. There is no reason to attend a four year university UNLESS it is the only way you can enter a career field (CPA, MBA, JD, MD, etc…).
Other than that, get a job, get experience, figure out what you want to do, and then get the education you need.
While it isn’t suitable or even possible, I recommend young people get a few years of work experience (such as the military) before going to college. They’re far more likely to be ready to buckle down when they’re a bit older and they’ll have something to put on their resumes.
2 years ago (April 2011), McDonald’s announced “Hiring Day” with the intent to fill 50,000 jobs in one day. They actually ended up filling 62,000 jobs (mix of unstated ratio of part and full time positions). With the number of applicants and a 24% increase in the number of hiring; McDonald’s still only took 6.2% of the applicants. Stated another way, over 90% of the people applying to McDonald’s can’t get a job with McDonald’s. I think this is why its believable that some college may be necessary, if only for a discriminator from the other 93%.
I think the issue of credentialism is going to be one of the most important ones for the American work force in the next twenty years, as higher degrees are required for even lower end work. I’ve seen ads wanting a Master’s Degree in engineering for even a CAD Detailer position, and a few requiring a licensed PE. One contract position required a Mech. Eng PHd for what amounted to a CAD modeling position, and no resumes would be accepted without proof of possessing said degree.
The McDonald’s ad was in error, but the trend is real. And as an older worker, with a 2 year degree in Mech Design, nearly 30 years drafting and design experience, including 15 on UG CAD, it keeps me awake at night. A lot.
Ted,
Yes, credentialism will be more important in the future, but I expect it will move away from college degrees to accreditation/licensing by professional associations as was the case in the old craft guilds. One major factor driving it will be the MOOC movement as folks will want to starting getting credit for what they know versus for having a piece of paper.
But your position is one I am familiar with as many of the students I advise at GBC are in the same position of having an associate’s with a lot of experience in a world wanting bachelors. That group is the one we specifically designed our online BAS program to serve.