{"id":205,"date":"2026-05-04T11:06:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?p=205"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:06:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:06:49","slug":"is-college-worth-it-data-on-degrees-and-earnings-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2026\/05\/04\/is-college-worth-it-data-on-degrees-and-earnings-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Is College Worth It? Data on Degrees and Earnings\u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What should a high school graduate do?\u00a0People have\u00a0been told the surest and best path to middle-class comfort\u00a0is the college degree. We\u00a0have\u00a0spent our careers\u00a0in higher education,\u00a0but are also economists who look at the data. A story\u00a0that has been\u00a0circulating for the\u00a0past few years is that college is not what it used to be.\u00a0The percentage of Indiana high school graduates\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.in.gov\/che\/college-readiness-reports\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">who go on to college has declined from\u00a063% in 2017 to 53% in\u00a0in 2022<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Interestingly,\u00a0a new\u00a0study\u00a0released in\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorkfed.org\/research\/college-labor-market#--:explore:wages\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">February by the Federal Reserve Bank\u00a0of\u00a0New York<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0offers\u00a0insights\u00a0into\u00a0labor-market outcomes for 22-27-year-olds with and without\u00a0college degrees.\u00a0Using\u00a0annual national data from 1990 to 2025, the study confirms the persistence of a college wage premium ranging from 37% to 68%.\u00a0On average,\u00a0young adult college graduates\u00a0earn 49.4%\u00a0more than their non-credentialed counterparts.\u00a0To our surprise,\u00a0this\u00a0premium\u00a0varies quite a bit\u00a0from year to year,\u00a0especially in recent\u00a0years.\u00a0Notably,\u00a0the premium\u00a0fell from 67.7% in 2020\u00a0to\u00a048.6% in 2021,\u00a0rose to 66.7%\u00a0in 2022,\u00a0fell to 50% in 2023,\u00a0and remained at 50% in 2024.\u00a0We are not sure what, if anything,\u00a0this portends.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Another interesting statistic is the unemployment rate\u00a0for college and non-college graduates within the age cohort.\u00a0The college grad unemployment rate averaged 2.9% over the period,\u00a0while\u00a0their non-credentialed counterparts averaged 9.2%. This 6.3% differential tends to rise in downturns\u00a0and decline in good times,\u00a0but\u00a0the\u00a0pattern seems persistent.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">How many college grads are\u00a0underemployed- colloquially\u00a0serving as baristas\u00a0after\u00a0graduation?\u00a0Over the\u00a0past 35 years, some 42.8% of all college grads in the age cohort held\u00a0jobs\u00a0that did\u00a0not require a college degree. In\u00a02025,\u00a0the yearly average was 41.4%.\u00a0This\u00a0pattern\u00a0is also\u00a0persistent.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What is striking is the range of outcomes for different college majors.\u00a0Recent wages for higher-earning majors,\u00a0including various engineering degrees and computer science, were in the mid $80k\u2019s, twice those\u00a0of the lower-earning majors in pharmacy, theology, social services, performing arts, and anthropology,\u00a0who earn\u00a0in the low $40k\u2019s. Performing arts majors suffer a high unemployment rate (7.0%), high underemployment (58.9%), and low wages ($44,000).\u00a0Computer\u00a0engineering\u00a0majors\u00a0have a\u00a0high\u00a0unemployment rate\u00a0(7.8%)\u00a0\u00a0but\u00a0earn\u00a0high wages of\u00a0$90,000.\u00a0Of course,\u00a0the\u00a0decision to go\u00a0to college and the major chosen are not\u00a0just\u00a0about\u00a0dollars and cents. Nevertheless,\u00a0college prospects\u00a0are well-advised to consider historical\u00a0and recent employment data.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What should a high school graduate do?\u00a0People have\u00a0been told the surest and best path to middle-class comfort\u00a0is the college degree. We\u00a0have\u00a0spent our careers\u00a0in higher education,\u00a0but are also economists who look at the data. A story\u00a0that has been\u00a0circulating for the\u00a0past few years is that college is not what it used to be.\u00a0The percentage of Indiana high [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[271],"tags":[1774,1770,1773,302,1752,270,1772,6,1771,1697],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-career-outcomes","tag-college-education","tag-college-majors","tag-higher-education","tag-human-capital","tag-labor-market","tag-underemployment","tag-unemployment","tag-wage-premium","tag-workforce"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is College Worth It? 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