Analysis of Are Recent College Graduate Finding Good Jobs Written by Abel, Deitzand and Su - Article Example

Critical Analysis of Article Introduction: The article: “Are Recent College Graduate Finding Good Jobs?” written by Abel, Deitzand and Su argues that college graduates, after the Great Recession are finding increasing difficult to find their place in the labour market and often need to accept low-wage jobs but these problems are not new and have been existent even before recession. The authors meticulously delve into the statistical details to explore the conditions of jobs offered to the graduates who enter the labor market and assesses the quality of the jobs they are enrolled in. However, ignoring qualitative factors and absence of primary surveys have weakened the validity of the arguments projected. The paper would assess the strengths and weaknesses of the argumentative article especially in light of the methodology or approach used by the authors to defend the argument or thesis. Summary of the Article: The article supports the argumentative thesis that over last two decades the jobs available in the market require low skill and provide low-wage and recent graduates have no option other than accepting these jobs. This has especially ensued after the 2001 recession. The article is based upon secondary sources and data obtained from U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics and Current Population Survey. Data pertaining to recent college graduates with at least one bachelor’s degree have been considered for the analysis, and those who have joined school have been excluded from the data set since they are voluntarily staying out of the job market. The span taken for the study is from 1990 to 2013. Their analysis also reveals the fact that after the recession in 2001 and 2007-09, the level of unemployment has increased manifold and also the fresh graduates have to opt for part-time jobs or jobs which are not at par with their skill/education qualification and also with low wages. Unemployment rates for college students of different age groups have been considered. An age unemployment relation plotted shows an inverse association. Hence as graduates move from school into the labor market it is found that unemployment falls. Only after 2010 the market began to improve. In the report Abel, Deitz and Su have mentioned that recent graduates who study application oriented subject or have major in health or education find themselves in slightly better potential for jobs than others. Critical Analysis of the article Strengths The authors in this journalistic piece of writing give the statistical details in order of priority with a clear, confident and unpretentious tone. Such quantitative visual representation of data provides better precision, quicker analysis and lesser chances of bias or personal involvement. The data collected is based upon samples from different social groups and is thus suitable for generalizations. It is apt that the authors have considered “the unemployment rate for college graduates of different ages” to capture the transition to employment after graduation (Abel, Deitzand and Su 2). This would reveal whether time and experience adds to one’s potential for getting a job. One interesting observation made here is that “The inverse relationship between age and the unemployment rate appears to hold across time, and occurs even during peaks in the business cycle, as was the case in 1990 and 2000” (Abel, Deitzand and Su 3). Here it becomes clear that the problems with getting job is not a unique characteristic of post recession period but have surely enhanced after recession. In order to capture the results for the period after recession different time spans such as 2009-11 have been considered. The author argues that “there is also growing concern that recent graduates are finding themselves underemployed—that is, working in jobs that do not require a college degree” (Abel, Deitzand and Su 3). The authors justify the educative purpose of the article by backing up the argument with numeric data instead of depending on mere stories or news demonstrating the difficulties in finding jobs by recent college graduates. Statistical results need to be explained with economic logic. The authors skillfully do that in some cases, especially while explaining the relation between age and underemployment and the fact that after 2000 the age-underemployment profile is higher signifying that higher number of recent graduates is going underemployed after recession. He backs it up logically explaining the IT market reaching maturity and the change in demand of cognitive skills. The authors also make some useful deductions form the data with respect to the subjects that ensure lesser unemployment and underemployment and these are specific areas like health and education. Weaknesses Taking up the data between 2009 and 2011, the authors have observed that graduates in the late twenties (the age group ranges from twenty-two to thirty five) unemployment level falls to 4% (from 10% at 21) (Abel, Deitzand and Su, 2). In this particular case the discrepancy lies in the fact that there might be some participants especially in case of women who might have decided to join job at later age and might have been involved in some vocation or technical training courses. For women it might be more likely that they would get married and give some time before joining the labor market. Thus before assessing and adjusting for these aspects it would not be accurate to analyze the labor market on basis of these results. All the results are based upon secondary data and not firsthand information to cross verify or validate the same. The current survey is a cross sectional one and done with a sample whose size and distribution over socio economic classes are not specified. In order to generalize results it is important that quantitative results are collected using random sampling. In this paper for the samples collected, it is not specified whether random sampling has been used. A primary research with longitudinal survey on the same sample might have shown better and accurate results. While saying this one also needs to consider the time and money constraints in such surveys and therefore the current method used in this research is an optimum one based on available data and has thus managed to assimilate all the required data to address the research question. Another limitation which may be identified here is that an extensive literature survey has not been done. Hence as in an ideal research article, no literature gap could be identified. The paper is entirely descriptive with not much policy suggestions enfolded. In one case the authors show that underemployment is higher amongst recent college graduates rather than overall graduates. For this estimation candidates working in jobs which do not require college degree are considered underemployed. Again the authors mention, “We consider a college education to be a requirement for a given occupation if at least 50 percent of the respondents working in that occupation indicated that a bachelor’s degree is necessary to perform the job.” Such a method of determination might involve personal bias of respondents rather than a logical benchmark. Also it might happen in cases that a candidate prefers to work as a high bartender of a high profile hotel than a research associate in a small firm if he gets a little better incentives pay package in the former job. Job quality is considered to be reflected in the part time jobs and time worked in the job. But part time job cannot itself show poor quality without considering the personal constraints of the candidates which cannot be captured in this quantitative analysis. Similar considerations might be done by other participants with respect to distance, convenient of timing and even one’s passion. It is difficult to consider such qualitative factors in quantitative analysis. Conclusion In conclusion one may say that the article manages to prove the point of argument despite all limitations, with secondary data available from authentic sources of data. The article’s tone is discursive but centers around the main argument as the main purpose is to educate the readers comprising essentially research scholars, academicians and students. Finally the article attempts to prove the argument that college graduates after recession are getting poorer quality of jobs or remain unemployment and this becomes more common among recent graduates. Reference Abel Jaison, Deitz Richard and Su Yaqin, Are Recent College Graduates Finding Good Jobs? ; Current issues in Economics and Finance, (2014) 20.1, pp:1-9 Read More