Opinion - Our View

POSTED: Saturday, Jun. 20, 2009

Graduation worth effort despite tough economy

It is a tough time for high school and college graduates to be entering the job market.

The latest unemployment figures, for May, showed 9,260 people actively seeking work in Whatcom County, an unemployment rate of 8.4 percent. Statewide, matters are even worse, with a 9.4 percent rate and 16 of the state's 39 counties with a rate of 10 percent or higher.

But the years spent in school will pay off and despite the current economic struggles and rising tuition. We encourage all high school graduates to cast aside their doubts and invest in more education.

That's because the people who graduated from Western Washington University last week can expect to make much more than those seeking work with only a high school diploma, according to nationwide comparisons of salaries. The U.S. Census Bureau's annual "educational attainment" study in 2008 showed that workers with a high school diploma earned an average of $31,286 in 2007, while those with a bachelor's degree earned an average of $57,181.

Over a lifetime, that extra $20,000 a year you earn adds up to something like $800,000.

But if you are a college graduate this year, and are entering the worst economy in the United States in decades, you may be wondering whether your degree will pay off the same way.

Well, there is one part in all of this talk about unemployment and economic struggles you may not know: The unemployment rate is only 2.8 percent for people who hold a bachelor's degree, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The bureau tracks national unemployment by educational attainment. Those figures were last updated in March and are available online at www.bls.gov/emp/emptab7.htm. They show the unemployment rate for people who never finished high school at 9 percent, the rate for those with just a high school diploma at 5.7 percent and those with a two-year associate degree at 3.7 percent. The figure for those with a masters and doctoral degrees are even lower than the bachelors degree.

Education means employment, and more money. So as this year's graduates go out into an difficult job market and tight economy, we hope they leave knowing the hard work they did in Whatcom County's classrooms mean good things for their futures.

We wish them all lifelong success.