by Calculated Risk on 3/10/2020 12:44:00 PM

The first graph shows the unemployment rate by four levels of education (all groups are 25 years and older) through Feb 2020. Note: This is an update to a post from a few years ago.

Unfortunately this data only goes back to 1992 and includes only two recessions (the stock / tech bust in 2001, and the housing bust/financial crisis). Clearly education matters with regards to the unemployment rate - and all four groups are generally trending down.

Click on graph for larger image.

Note: This says nothing about the quality of jobs - as an example, a college graduate working at minimum wage would be considered "employed".

This brings up an interesting question: What is the composition of the labor force by educational attainment, and how has that been changing over time?

Here is some data on the U.S. labor force by educational attainment since 1992.

Currently, almost 60 million people in the U.S. labor force have a Bachelor's degree or higher.  This is almost 42% of the labor force, up from 26.2% in 1992.

This is the only category trending up.  "Some college" has been steady, and both "high school" and "less than high school" have been trending down.

Based on current trends, probably more than half the labor force will have at least a bachelor's degree at the end of this decade (2020s).

Some thoughts: Since workers with bachelor's degrees typically have a lower unemployment rate, this is probably a factor in pushing down the overall unemployment rate over time.

Also, I'd guess more education would mean less labor turnover, and that education is a factor in fewer weekly claims (I haven't seen data on unemployment claims by education).

A more educated labor force is a positive for the future.