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From May 2007 to May 2016, the U.S. economy gained 6 million jobs. Occupations that typically require a high school diploma or the equivalent for entry lost 1.3 million jobs over that period. Much of this decrease resulted from job losses in manufacturing and construction around the time of the 2007–09 recession.
Entry-level education requirement | Employment change |
---|---|
All occupations |
6,045,790 |
Bachelor's or master's degree |
4,014,680 |
No formal educational credential |
1,991,220 |
Postsecondary nondegree award |
655,010 |
Associate's degree |
450,580 |
Doctoral or professional degree |
450,340 |
Some college, no degree |
-224,280 |
High school diploma or equivalent |
-1,291,780 |
Occupations that typically require no formal educational credential for entry gained 2 million jobs from May 2007 to May 2016. Occupations in this education category include retail salespersons, cashiers, janitors, and most food preparation and serving related occupations.
Occupations that typically require a bachelor’s or master’s degree for entry gained 4 million jobs from May 2007 to May 2016. Among occupations that typically require some type of education beyond high school for entry, only one education category lost jobs: some college, no degree.
These data are from the Occupational Employment Statistics program. The typical entry-level education requirements assigned to each occupation are based on research by the Employment Projections program. The typical entry-level education requirement for an occupation may differ from the educational level of workers in the occupation and from the education employers require for individual jobs in the occupation. To learn more, see “Employment trends by typical entry-level education requirement.” We also have more data available by typical entry-level education requirement.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Occupations typically requiring high school for entry lost 1.3 million jobs, May 2007–16 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/occupations-typically-requiring-high-school-for-entry-lost-1-3-million-jobs-may-2007-16.htm (visited October 31, 2024).