


Recently many leading companies have changed their mindset about requiring degrees, including Google, Netflix, Tesla, IBM, Penguin Random House, Bank of America, Hilton, and Apple. Shifting Normsįor some organizations, proving you can do the work is enough to get you the job without a degree. workforce does not have a bachelor’s degree. This is in spite of the fact that 63% of employers say that the degree requirements make it harder to fill positions, which may be because nearly two-thirds of the U.S. For example, employers feel that productivity levels are no different between degreed and non-degreed employees and that retention rates remain the same between workers with and without degrees.Įven though employers note that having a degree doesn’t guarantee a candidate will be a “better” employee, some companies still require that applicants have their degree. However, at the same time, employers also admit that possessing a college degree does not guarantee that a candidate will be any better at the job than someone without a degree. While the range of “hard” skills varied by field, the desired soft skills were generally the same across the board (including verbal communication skills and the ability to mentor other staff).

Specifically, employers feel that candidates with degrees possess more hard and soft skills than non-degreed candidates. The study found that employers believe that applicants with a college degree are more “job-ready” than those without a degree. Why require a degree when the job’s duties and responsibilities are the same no matter how much education an employee has? The same study also found that in nine out of 10 job postings that requested a bachelor’s degree, the postings did not contain different duties or added responsibilities than postings with the same title that didn’t require a bachelor’s degree. Do Employers Require College Degrees?Īccording to a 2017 Harvard Business School study, between 20, job postings listing a bachelor’s degree requirement as a condition of employment rose by 10%. The data shows that people with a bachelor’s degree had median weekly earnings of $1,248, versus $746 for a high school diploma.Īdditionally, employers are willing to pay a starting salary that’s between 11% and 30% higher for people with a bachelor’s degree. However, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that there are benefits to pursuing a degree.įor example, people with a bachelor’s degree who were at least 25 years old in 2019 had a total unemployment rate of 2.2%, while those with only a high school diploma had a rate of 3.7%. Four years at a private institution is approximately $219,520.Ĭlearly, pursuing a traditional four-year degree can add up. Given that college costs are on the rise and the average student loan debt in 2020 was about $37,500, many people are starting to question the wisdom of pursuing a bachelor’s degree.ĭoes it make sense to spend all that time and money getting your degree when you could be working, earning, and gaining experience? And do employers value real-world experience and on-the-job training enough to overlook the lack of a degree on a resume? Value of a College Degreeįor the 2020-2021 academic year, the approximate price for one year at an in-state public college was $26,280 (including tuition, room, board, and other fees), for a total cost of $105,120 for four years.
