Stocks, Homes & Your College Degree: Things That Are Losing Value Fast

It’s like a bad game show category–Things That Are Losing Value Fast. Stocks, home values, the U.S. dollar are all becoming big paper weights, worthless. Now, you can add your college degree to the list.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not telling you to forget about getting or finishing your college degree; I’m telling you to be really selective and very strategic about your education because the job offers and salary levels to which college grads were once entitled are becoming rarer and rarer.

The wages of college graduates have risen well above inflation for decades. But that appears to be at an end. Wages for U.S. workers, including those who went to college, have virtually stopped growing, with the exception of those of a small group of workers with specialized skills and education–technology plus creative, humanities plus strategy, engineering plus business management, finance plus marketing.

The Department of Labor’s statistical snapshots show the typical weekly salary of a worker with a bachelor’s degree, adjusted for inflation, didn’t rise last year from 2006 and was 1.7 percent below the 2001 level.

Even without the growth, the average U.S. worker with a college degree still earns more than 75% more than U.S. workers with only a high school diploma–well worth the investment. The problem is that the “college premium” sort of stalled in 2001 instead of continuing to rise with, say, the cost of college tuition.

Why is this happening?

Unfortunately, those of us with a college degree have become commodities (read: not special). And that, coupled with the forces of globalization and technology have created a sort of diversion, diverting most of the benefits of the economy’s growth to that privileged few I mentioned above.

Employers want folks who not only have a college degree, but also bring something else–something that can’t be outsourced or learned in classrooms–to their businesses. When surveyed U.S. employers report needing workers who are creative, tech-savvy, strategic and able to work well on diverse, cross-functional teams. They also want more predictable things: grads from Ivy League or other top universities, workers with advanced degrees and workers with international work experience and those who speak multiple languages.

So, what can you do?

If you’ve already got a college degree, consider getting a master’s degree in an in-demand field (business, health care administration, product development and design).

If you don’t have a college degree, get one (Things are worse for those without a college degree).

Attend executive education classes at Ivy League schools (They’re expensive but impressive and timely)

Obtain professional certificates in in-demand fields (Also offered by through the continuing education divisions of top universities)

Take jobs “for the experience” (For example, an entry-level job at a tech startup might not pay the bills, but it will give you valuable experience you can leverage into a better salary in your next job)