Just as the American and British Economies experienced purges of middle management built up between the period 1920–1980 because of the influence of ‘managerialism’ (socialism), the entire world is about to go through a set of severe employment contractions between now and at least 2025.
1 – political management – on a vast scale.
2 – much more of lower middle management – on a vast scale.
3 – a little more labor due to automation – perhaps on a perceptible scale.
and (possibly)
4 – much, much, much, of the financial sector on a frightening scale.
In my (rather informed I think) opinion, if you do not possess a STEM degree for employment purposes, and perhaps a philosophy/law minor (so you think clearly), you have very little chances of employability other than “gee I have a degree”.
Like most things, it’s more (a) who you know, and (b) what industry you can get into early, and (c) how much you can save of your income and invest before you are 30.
Why? Because the west has held a 500 year military, technical, legal, financial, cultural, literacy, and knowledge advantage over the world, and Because Americans inherited the British empire’s institutions of world finance, trade, and oil. It is quite possible that Americans will descend to european standards of living (which are much lower unfortunately), and even more possible that europeans will descend as well.
We no longer hold those advantages, and what we have seen since about 1992, a brief boom as we collected the post-cold-war (world communism) dividend, but by 2006 it was fairly evident that ‘the great leveling’ in the world economy would occur at the same time as ‘the great sort’ was occurring in the US population.
ie: minimum bar for a college degree with any employability is a STEM degree. College degree only tells employers you can follow direction. It is the same bar as a high school diploma used to be before they discounted the high school diploma by lowering the standards. The same has occurred in colleges and universities. This is because while only about 15% of the work force has the IQ necessary to obtain a ‘legit’ college degree, about 50% of our people go to college. Ergo, 2/3 of the people who hold college degrees are meaningless. And of the remaining 1/3, only those with a STEM degree are employable.
Worse, a PhD is a liability not an asset when seeking employment outside of research or STEM classes.
Employers need to know you have a degree worth having from a school worth issuing it. The degree itself is now just a permission slip to seek work. Not a criteria for creating demand.
Cheers
Curt Doolittle
https://www.quora.com/What-kinds-of-job-opportunities-are-available-for-people-with-a-PhD-in-political-economy
