Unemployment by Level of Education

Calculated Risk created a graph that breaks out unemployment rates by level of education.  While it's to be expected that more education attainment means greater pay and job security, what is immediately clear is that this recession is being felt by the poorest amongst us most. severely.  In fact you might say that the gap between the "Two Americas" John Edwards described, is getting wider.

As you can see, the increase is substantially greater for those without a high school diploma or equivalent than that of other education levels, particularly those with at least a bachelors degree. 

Why is this so striking?  It tells us that what blue collar type jobs that were left, have basically evaporated.  In fact the hardest hit jobs were ones held predominantly by men.  The trades, resource workers, and the industrial sector.  There was a time in this country when a person could make a reasonable wage through labor.  It wasn't a glamorous job, and it didn't afford a luxurious lifestyle, but one could find decent work without a lot of education. 

Those days appear to be gone... particularly when you consider that the REAL unemployment numbers (adding in those who accepted part-time work because they could not find full-time, or simply gave up) are much higher and likely approaching 20%.  Since that's the way we used to measure unemployment it's safe to say it; we're in a Depression.

So while the well-to-do have taken a significant haircut, they're still doing very well.  The middle-class is very nervous and has dramatically shifted its spending priorities, but isn't feeling this recession/depression too dramatically, but the poor is bearing the bulk of the burden of this economy.  Tragically, they are the ones who can afford it the least.

Imagine if you will the plight of the unemployed framer.  He comes from an industry that has essentially vanished, home building.  He has a family to provide for and must do it on the $300 a week he gets for unemployment.  Health insurance is pretty much out of the question, so hopefully he doesn't get hurt on the under-the-table jobs that he finds occasionally to supplement his unemployment.  His skills are such that he can't quickly move to a new industry and can't very well get a degree over night.

To make matters worse, one of the country's major political parties seems to feel that the government should have no role in lending him a hand while he gets back on his feet.  They even seem convinced of a new form of revisionist history that spending on public works hurt, rather than helped, the economy during the last Depression.  Perhaps they also forget the internet was invented and we can now easily debunk such nonsense.

Adopting a brutal, unsustainable, Neo-Hooverist system is something we cannot afford.  In fact if there is a criticism of President Obama's stimulus efforts its that they don't go nearly far enough. 

Turning our backs on these people is not only immoral given that we need their skills during boom times, but it's also dangerous.  How long before we see the kinds of social unrest that turn into revolution?  People forget that was a very real threat before the election of FDR and his New Deal.

If we ever get the feeling people without advanced education deserve the plight their in, we should remind ourselves that our capitalist structure depends on them.  It should be very clear by now that a sustainable economy cannot be built on financial services alone.  Not everyone can grow up to be a MBA and one day have the opportunity to break the world.