For the better part of the last 60 years, Americans have been led to believe that the most viable path into a middle-class career is with a four-year degree and with it, often enough, thousands of dollars in accrued debt. Relatedly, some are calling recent dips in college enrollment a “crisis” that portends dire consequences for the economy.
Not necessarily.
Between 2020 and 2030, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that about 60 percent of new jobs in the economy will be in occupations that don’t typically require an associate’s, bachelor’s, or graduate degree. According to BLS, many of these jobs will be in construction, energy, transportation, equipment repair, as healthcare technicians and other occupations where most median wage rates already exceed national averages and don’t require workers to accrue college debt to qualify.
