
A new report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce shows that there are plenty of jobs paying above $35,000 annually that don't require a college degree.
by Frank Kalman
July 26, 2017
Who says there are no good jobs for those without a college degree in the U.S. economy?
A new report published by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce shows that there are roughly 30 million “good jobs,” or those that pay more than $35,000 annually, for workers who do not have a four-year college degree.
The bad news, as The Wall Street Journal points out, is that there are 75 million U.S. workers without college diplomas, or roughly 2.5 workers for every one of those good jobs. This means that high-school graduates have far fewer odds of finding a good, sustainable career track than they did a generation ago, according to the findings from the Georgetown report, which defined good jobs as those paying more than $35,000 a year, or more than $45,000 for workers over the age of 45.
The Journal continues:
“The number of good jobs for noncollege graduates rose to 30 million in 2015 from 27 million in 1991, but the labor market grew, too. By 2015, the share of all good jobs that went to noncollege graduates fell to 45 percent from 60 percent in 1991 — leaving 45 million workers in low-paying, sometimes part-time roles that don’t offer a path to the middle class.”
This fall Georgetown, along with with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., will launch a Good Jobs Index that maps the states and occupations where people without college degrees can find economic opportunities that pay at least a living wage, the Journal reports.
Frank Kalman is Talent Economy‘s managing editor. To comment, email editor@talenteconomy.io.