The trend continues that women are adjusting better to the changing economy than men. Yahoo! News has an article using Census data that for the first time ever there are more women with advanced degrees than men. This makes it an across the board sweep for women: more high school grads, more with four year degrees and now more with advanced degrees. Men still dominate in professional degrees in business, science and engineering.
And because the economy is increasingly knowledge-based women are doing better in the labor market. Women are now half the workers in America, are less unemployed than men (8.3% compared to 9.3%) and are closing the pay gap. Women now earn 78% of what men earn, up substantially from 64% in 2000. Maybe most important, as University of Michigan Flint’s Mark Perry says in the article: “The gaps we’re seeing in bachelor’s and advanced degrees mean that women will be better protected against the next recession.”
In many ways that is the bottom line for all of us – men and women. The most reliable pathway now and in the future to good paying jobs and career is education attainment, particularly a college degree. No matter what happens to the economy those with college degrees in economic expansions and downturns are more likely to be employed and at higher wages. It is a lesson we all need to learn.
