Non-paywalled link

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/economy/americans-without-co...

The real story is about lifetime earnings and related outcomes in pension/Roth/401k and in health benefits.

Not that there's nothing here: Degree is over-valued as a life goal in a time where we no longer really value tertiary education the way we should, and charge the kind of for-profit costs (and loan tail) to get one.

Many non-degree career paths incur significant OHS risk and limits to your work life as a fit adult. Some degree paths to too: Physiotherapists cannot go on doing that kind of body-manipulation work forever without an effect on themselves, but if you plot lifetime earnings in medical against construction labour, it gets complicated fast.

We have long ago crossed the point where a contractor/H1B from India is cheaper and can be forced to work longer hours has replaced the majority of STEM graduates who would have traditionally filled these roles. Just look at the campuses of all the big players (MSFT, AMZN, APPL, META, etc) and you'll see that Indians make up the majority of employees (H1B/Contractors).

At the moment they are not taking the Walmart, Safeway, Starbucks, McDonald's, jobs. So it makes sense that these kids without degrees are being employed at higher rates.

Junk away