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Should note that it's "attended college" but not necessarily graduated, and that makes a huge difference.

by sunsu 14y ago

jwarzech 14y ago
That's what caught my eye as well. I don't think a semester counts as "attended college". I'd like to see a more detailed breakdown.
fluidcruft 14y ago
Another demographic variable mentioned in the article is that the older end of the unemployed cohort had much lower rates of "attended college" and rises are expected as they age leave the workforce. At first my concern seeing that chart was "OMG why didn't anyone see this trend over the last 20 years and why hasn't it been part of the public discussion", but given at least that confound is not factored into the data display, my feeling is now that it's more of a meaningless fished graphic/statistic for effect/pageviews.
barik 14y ago
This is hugely important, and seems to have been glossed over. "attending college" != "graduating from college". College is, for better or worse, a binary signal. You either graduated or you didn't. When you apply for an Engineering license, the Engineering board doesn't care that you completed 100% of your Engineering courses but never received a degree because you forgot to take History 101. Because of this, it's even worse in that it's a sunk cost. Better to go ahead and drop out earlier rather than later, because not only will you not have a degree, you'll have wasted that many years for no measurable improvement in hiring potential.
- WalterBright 14y ago
  You won't have wasted "that many years" if you took courses that taught you something useful, even if you did not graduate.
thisisnotmyname 14y ago
This should be the top comment. This article seems to be playing games with the numbers. Why do they choose to focus on the fraction of the unemployed? This trend could just be explained by greater numbers of people attending some amount of college relative to the past. They should really show the fraction of college educated unemployed, vs fraction without college educated unemployed, but that wouldn't fit their narrative.

Should note that it's "attended college" but not necessarily graduated, and that makes a huge difference.

by sunsu 14y ago

Should note that it's "attended college" but not necessarily graduated, and that makes a huge difference.

That's what caught my eye as well. I don't think a semester counts as "attended college". I'd like to see a more detailed breakdown.

fluidcruft 14y ago

Another demographic variable mentioned in the article is that the older end of the unemployed cohort had much lower rates of "attended college" and rises are expected as they age leave the workforce. At first my concern seeing that chart was "OMG why didn't anyone see this trend over the last 20 years and why hasn't it been part of the public discussion", but given at least that confound is not factored into the data display, my feeling is now that it's more of a meaningless fished graphic/statistic for effect/pageviews.

barik 14y ago

This is hugely important, and seems to have been glossed over. "attending college" != "graduating from college". College is, for better or worse, a binary signal. You either graduated or you didn't. When you apply for an Engineering license, the Engineering board doesn't care that you completed 100% of your Engineering courses but never received a degree because you forgot to take History 101. Because of this, it's even worse in that it's a sunk cost. Better to go ahead and drop out earlier rather than later, because not only will you not have a degree, you'll have wasted that many years for no measurable improvement in hiring potential.

WalterBright 14y ago
You won't have wasted "that many years" if you took courses that taught you something useful, even if you did not graduate.

thisisnotmyname 14y ago

This should be the top comment. This article seems to be playing games with the numbers. Why do they choose to focus on the fraction of the unemployed? This trend could just be explained by greater numbers of people attending some amount of college relative to the past. They should really show the fraction of college educated unemployed, vs fraction without college educated unemployed, but that wouldn't fit their narrative.