Those statistics don't show an ROI, they show a correlation between education and unemployment. There could be many reasons that people with higher education a

Those statistics don't show an ROI, they show a correlation between education and unemployment. There could be many reasons that people with higher education aspirations have lower unemployment. Correlation does not imply causation. I'm sure you can imagine that if somebody has the drive and mental capacity to finish a college degree, they also likely have the drive and mental capacity to land and keep a job. It is not the college degree that matters necessarily. Using your own statistics, 89.9% of college dropouts have a job. And 95.3% of college grads have a job. Is four or five years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars worth a 5.4% increase? What if you were to dedicate those four years to personal study and lower job market experience and work your way up for four years instead? Can you be sure that the college route is the better solution, knowing that it only gives a 5.4% increase in those statistics?