September 09, 2012
Of course he was arguing the opposite. But to make his case that everyone will need more education to get decent jobs he told readers:
“Which is why if we ever get another stimulus it has to focus, in part, on getting more people more education. The unemployment rate today is 4.1 percent for people with four years of college, 6.6 percent for those with two years, 8.8 percent for high school graduates, and 12.0 percent for dropouts.”
If Friedman had the ability to use the Internet he could have gone to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website to discover that the unemployment rate for college grads is more than double its pre-recession level.
Unemployment Rate for College Grads: Age 25 and Over
Source Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The story would be much worse if we looked at the experience of recent college grads. The point here is a simple one, the economy is suffering from an enormous shortfall in demand. This means that even many highly skilled people are unable to find jobs. The 4.1 percent unemployment rate for college grads is evidence of this shortfall in demand. It is not, as Friedman apparently believes, evidence that people who get education will be able to weather the storms created by incompetent economic policy.
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