An NBC News poll recently found that only one-third of Americans believe a four-year college degree is worth the cost. A new study by the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank helps explain why: Many young college graduates out of work are having a harder time than high-school grads finding jobs, and artificial intelligence isn’t to blame.
The share of Americans who believe a college degree pays off has fallen by 20 percentage points since 2013. Today, 63% say that it’s “not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off,” according to the NBC poll. Only 46% of those with college degrees believe they are worth the cost, a 17-point decline.
You don’t need an economics degree to notice that young college grads are struggling. According to the Cleveland Fed study, the unemployment gap between high-school and college grads between the ages of 22 and 27 has tightened to a mere 2.5-percentage points, compared with about five percentage points in previous decades.