, Columnist
Two-Year College Degrees Have Diminished in Value
These graduates have experienced the biggest drops in employment since 2019 and haven’t done all that well since 2000, either.
Many women with associate degrees are still out of work.
Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The employment-to-population ratio of Americans ages 25 through 54, the most straightforward measure of the health of the job market, has now clawed back about 80% of its pandemic losses.
This leaves so-called “prime age” Epop a little more than 2 percentage points, or 2.5 million jobs, short of its pre-pandemic level. But the recovery has been much, much faster than those that followed the 2001 or 2007-2009 recessions. The October reading of 78.3% released last week was higher than at any time during Barack Obama’s presidency.