College Degree Outcomes

Despite the high cost of college, most of the nation's parents still believe college is worth the cost, according to the 2013 Sallie Mae report, How America Pays for College. Eighty-five percent of parents with children enrolled in an undergraduate program think college is an investment in their child's future, and 65 percent say having a college degree is more important than it used to be.

They feel this way despite the fact that fewer than half of 21-to-24-year-olds who earned a bachelor's degree between 2003 and 2011 are employed in a job that requires a college degree. Here is the percent distribution of recent college graduates by their current employment status, according to a study by the Economic Mobility Project (How Much Protection Does a College Degree Afford?)...

42% are employed in a "college job"
26% are employed in a "high school job"
22% are attending school
10% are unemployed or not in the labor force

College graduates may be getting beat up in the labor market, but you should have seen the other guy. Among 21-to-24-year-old high school graduates, 45 percent have a high school job, 30 percent are in school, 18 percent are unemployed or not in the labor force, and 7 percent have a college job. That's why parents want their children to go to college—to boost their odds of getting a college job from 7 to 42 percent.