Tough economic times leads more students to start, stay in school, new report shows

Bad economic times make for good students.

What gets people to sit up and pay attention in class is knowing that unemployment is the most likely career path out there. That’s the conclusion from new federal data showing that the number of Americans graduating from college has jumped in recent years with more students enrolling in school and more actually graduating.

Claudia Goldin, a professor of economics at Harvard University, said the increase has come both from people being scared by the recession into going to, or staying in, college — as well as people who have chosen to take their opportunity to better educate themselves.

“It does look, right now, like it is that returns to college are just very high,” she said. “We are seeing it just about across the board. We’re seeing it for white men, definitely white women, definitely Hispanics and African Americans too.”

Goldin said many of these students are making smart choices about what fields they’re going into, too. Often, they’re choosing medical-related fields, for example, as well as others in high demand.

All of this points to a reality — that jumping into the workforce too early can be detrimental in the long-term. While that’s not always true, Goldin said, it especially is in this time when the labor market demands very specific skills and companies aren’t interested in providing training.

This isn’t an unprecedented turn of events. During the Great Depression, a number of students, particularly male, chose to stay in high school or even pursue college.

“That then led to a group of men who went into World War II, for example, as high school graduates,” she said.

Then, with the G.I. Bill after World War II, those men were able to earn college degrees and help transform parts of the American workforce, and indeed the American economy, Goldin said.