Sad Reality About the Job Market: High School Graduates Need Not Apply

Joe Sinagra

By JOE SINAGRA

SPECIAL TO NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

Unfortunately a college education is a necessary reality for many in order to acquire a low wage job.

While Congress and President Obama haggle about giving those in the workforce an extra two dollars per hour, 284,000 Americans with college degrees worked minimum wage jobs last year.

To put it bluntly, 70% more college grads are earning minimum wage than a decade ago. Roughly 284,000 Americans with college degrees worked minimum wage jobs last year.

Lower-wage occupations that grew the most during the recovery include retail salespersons, food preparation workers, laborers and freight workers, waiters and waitresses, personal and home care aides, and office clerks and customer representatives.

You could make the statement of why bother to get an education, but the irony of it is that without one you may not qualify for the minimum wage job. People without an advanced education are getting pushed out of the labor market with 36% of American workers older than 25 and having a high school education or less are losing out on getting hired.

Close to half of the college graduates in today’s market are working in jobs that don't require a bachelor's degree, with 38% of that figure working in a field that doesn’t even require a high school education.

We are still missing nearly 10 million jobs, with job quality rapidly emerging as a side effect to a struggling recovery.

There are way too many over qualified people working in a competitive low skill job market. For every available low wage position there are 10 applicants.

Sure there are new jobs but job creation may not be where the problem lies; the problem is how much are those new jobs willing to pay?

Those working in a lower wage environment will not be contributing much to stimulate any meaningful economic growth as purchasing power will be limited.

Unless there are some huge indicators to indicate significant job growth, the future does not bode well for either those with an education and worse for those without one.

Will this become the norm for the job souk of the future?

*** *** ***

Joseph Sinagra (born December 20, 1946 in New Brunswick, New Jersey) is an American Republican Party politician, who was a 2006 congressional candidate for the United States House of Representatives in New Jersey's 12th congressional district.  He has owned several small businesses, and is employed as Facilities Manager for Miele Corporate Headquarters located in Princeton, New Jersey and is former CEO of My Plumber Inc. Sinagra held a seat on the Helmetta Planning Board, was Emergency Management Coordinator, and a Helmetta Councilman from 1989 to 1998 (serving three terms on several committees), also as Council President for seven years. Returning in 1999 to fill in for a one year vacated seat (picked by majority Democratic Council). Sinagra has also served as Chairman of the Helmetta Republican Party, presently the Vice-Chair, and was the Republican nominee for Middlesex County Clerk challenging incumbent Democrat Elaine Flynn in 2005. Sinagra was a candidate for District 18 of the New Jersey General Assembly.

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/commentary/sad-reality-about-the-job-market-high-school-graduates-need-not-apply