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Are Lots of College Graduates Taking High School Jobs? A Reconsiderationof the Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • John Tyler
  • Richard J. Murnane
  • Frank Levy

Abstract

Several recent published papers have asserted that a growing proportion of workers with college degrees are either unemployed or employed in jobs requiring only high school skills. Using data from the 1980 and 1990 Censuses of Population and Housing, we show that this assertion does not accurately reflect labor market trends for young (25-34 year old) male or female college graduates or for older (45-54 year old) female college graduates. For all these groups, real earnings increased during the 1980s and the percentage in 'high school jobs' declined. The assertion is valid only for older male college graduates. Young college graduates improved their labor market position during the 1980s by increasingly obtaining degrees in occupations which had high earnings at the beginning of the decade and which had the highest earnings growth over the decade.

Suggested Citation

  • John Tyler & Richard J. Murnane & Frank Levy, 1995. "Are Lots of College Graduates Taking High School Jobs? A Reconsiderationof the Evidence," NBER Working Papers 5127, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5127
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    Cited by:

    1. Gijsbert Zwart & Machiel Mulder, 2006. "NATGAS: a model of the European natural gas market," CPB Memorandum 144.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. A. Gautier, Pieter & J. van den Berg, Gerard & C. van Ours, Jan & Ridder, Geert, 2002. "Worker turnover at the firm level and crowding out of lower educated workers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 523-538, March.
    3. Victoria Chorny & Dinand Webbink, 2010. "The effect of accountability policies in primary education in Amsterdam," CPB Discussion Paper 144.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    4. Hunt, Jennifer & Nunn, Ryan, 2022. "Has U.S. employment really polarized? A critical reappraisal," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. Arias, Omar & McMahon, Walter W., 2001. "Dynamic rates of return to education in the U.S," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 121-138, April.
    6. James Vickery, 1999. "Unemployment and Skills in Australia," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp1999-12, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    7. Henk Kranendonk & Johan Verbruggen, 2007. "SAFFIER; a multi-purpose model of the Dutch economy for short-term and medium-term analyses," CPB Document 144.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

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    JEL classification:

    • J - Labor and Demographic Economics

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