Education and Employment: Lessons from the 2008 Recession
This paper analyzes a data-driven article from The Condition of Education 2015, which examines employment and unemployment trends by educational attainment level from 2000 onward, with particular attention to the effects of the 2008 economic recession. Using four graphs, the source article documents a consistent pattern: higher educational attainment correlates with higher employment rates and greater resilience during economic downturns. However, the paper also draws on supplementary sources — including a Congressional Research Service report and a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics spotlight — to raise a striking counterpoint: long-term unemployment does not vary by education level, a finding that invites both further economic and psychological research.
- Overview of the Source Article: Introduces the article's data-focused, non-argumentative approach
- Employment Rates by Educational Attainment: Analyzes Figures One and Two on post-recession employment trends
- Unemployment Rates and Their Measurement: Examines Figures Three and Four and critiques unemployment definitions
- Long-Term Unemployment and a Surprising Finding: Introduces BLS data showing education doesn't affect long-term joblessness
- Conclusions and Directions for Future Research: Calls for psychological and economic research into persistent unemployment
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper moves systematically through each figure in the source article before introducing supplementary sources, mirroring the logical structure of the data it analyzes.
- It identifies a genuine and striking tension — that education protects against short-term unemployment but not long-term joblessness — and uses this tension to motivate future research directions.
- The closing observation that long-term unemployment may require psychological rather than economic research demonstrates independent critical thinking beyond simple summary.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates effective data synthesis: the writer summarizes quantitative findings from multiple graphs without reproducing raw numbers unnecessarily, then integrates additional scholarly and government sources to complicate and enrich the initial findings. The contrast between short-term and long-term unemployment statistics is used skillfully to generate an original analytical point.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief characterization of the source article, then works through each of the four figures in sequence (employment rates over time, employment by attainment in 2014, unemployment rates, and unemployment in 2014). It then broadens to include two external sources before concluding with implications for future research. This structure moves from description to analysis to implication.
Overview of the Source Article
"Employment Rates and Unemployment Rates by Educational Attainment" (from The Condition of Education 2015) examines data concerning trends in employment and unemployment surrounding the 2008 economic recession. The article presents sets of data in graphic form, with each graph explained so as to make its essential meaning clear. The conclusions of the article are therefore conclusions of fact rather than polemical argument — this is a presentation of data, not a policy brief.
Employment Rates by Educational Attainment
The first graph (Figure One) presents the employment rate by year from 2000 onward, for young adults (ages 20–24) and for older adults (ages 25–64). In both cases, the trend is fairly easy to spot: a substantial downward dip appears at the time of the 2008 recession, and the numbers do not rise to their pre-recession heights again. For both age groups, there is a slow, steady decrease in the percentage of employed persons over time.
In terms of the overall data presented by the article, we are invited to observe that persons with a college degree or higher level of educational attainment are represented by the line on the graph that shows the least fluctuation and the highest percentage of employment. By contrast, the fluctuations for those who lack a high school degree are visibly severe: just over sixty percent of high school dropouts were employed in 2000, but after the 2008 recession the percentage hovered in the low forties.
This correlation between employment and educational attainment is further confirmed by Figure Two, which presents the percentage figures for a single post-recession year, 2014. Here we can see — for both 20- to 24-year-olds and 25- to 64-year-olds — that those with a college degree are employed at a much higher rate than the overall average for the age group. Having some college education but no degree also appears to help, as those figures sit just slightly above the average. A much lower percentage of those with less education finds employment in each age group.
Unemployment Rates and Their Measurement
Figure Three presents figures for unemployment, though the article notes that in the United States, unemployment is measured by a somewhat narrow definition: it includes only those who have been jobless and actively seeking employment for up to four weeks without finding work. This definition excludes those who remain jobless and searching beyond four weeks, as well as those who have stopped actively seeking employment, among others. It does not represent a full accounting of all who are without work.
Nonetheless, even within this circumscribed definition, similar trends emerge: unemployment for those with a college degree is consistently the lowest compared to other educational attainment levels. However, younger college graduates (ages 20–24) experience a higher level of unemployment than older graduates (ages 25–64). This finding is confirmed by Figure Four, which focuses specifically on data for 2014, mirroring the approach of Figure Two. The unemployment rate for young college graduates aged 20–24 stood at 6.7% in 2014, while the rate for older college graduates aged 25–64 stood at 3.4% — meaning a young college graduate was nearly twice as likely to be unemployed as an older college graduate ("Employment Rates," 2015, p. 4).
References
"Employment Rates and Unemployment Rates by Educational Attainment Level." (2015). In Kena, G., Musu-Gillette, L., et al., The Condition of Education 2015. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
Kosanovich, K., & Sherman, E. T. (2015). Trends in long-term unemployment. Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2015/long-term-unemployment/
Levine, L. (2013). Economic growth and the unemployment rate. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service.
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