Is Now the Time for a New Education?

Hello everyone! Let’s get right into it shall we? Today’s article is in response to something I keep seeing over and over on our site.

Everyone knows that times are hard and that there aren’t a lot of jobs out there for anyone so why spend money on a new degree when there aren’t any jobs?

The answer is that an education is actually a great investment right now.

The Bureau of Labor statistics puts the February 2009 unemployment rate for high school dropouts at 12.6%, 8.3% for high school graduates and the unemployment for college graduates is half of that at 4.1%. For every level of education, you are gaining a 4% better chance in the job market.

It’s also important to note that your new career will not be in the current job market. You will emerge into a job market a year, two years or four years down the road. The economy can only do two things in that time; get better or get worse. In an improved economy, people who have spent the last few years educating themselves will have weathered the storm of the financial downturn and will come out improved and with better prospects ahead. In an economy that worsens over the next few years, the newly educated will find themselves with better and more marketable skills to better their chances in a changing world.

In a changing world it is those who change and adapt who succeed. Stock markets rise and fall, unemployment soars and shrinks but the one thing that remains constant, the one thing you always have is yourself. If you are going to invest in anything right now, invest in yourself.