University students who tossed up their mortarboards in 2008 were also dealt a gut punch that year when the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression engulfed the world.
Despite entering the workforce during one of the globe’s biggest economic downturns, a new report finds five years onward B.C. university degree-holders from that graduating class are outpacing their counterparts in terms of jobs.
An October 24 study from the Research Universities' Council of B.C. (RUCBC) reported 96% of the employed grads from the class of 2008 held jobs requiring a post-secondary degree.
Furthermore, the case study also showed overall these grads had an average unemployment rate of 4.7% in 2013.
British Columbians who did not go to university had an unemployment rate of 7.3% that year while the youth unemployment rate for non-university grads was 13.4%.
“The students who graduated during the depths of this economic downturn have done extremely well by going through university,” said Arvind Gupta, president of the University of B.C., “which isn’t to say that everyone should go to university. People should do what they’re passionate about and what they want to do.”
But the report’s data, which was culled from the B.C. Stats agency, also showed a significant gulf between the unemployment rates between arts and sciences grads, and those who graduated with degrees in health, business and engineering.
Undergrads with health backgrounds had unemployment rates in 2010 of 0.9% and 0.5% in 2013. Engineering grads experienced unemployment rates of 8% in 2010 and 3.2% in 2013. Business degree holders had unemployment rates of 4.6% in 2010 and 2.7% in 2013.
But in 2010, arts and sciences students had an unemployment rate of 9.2%, although that dropped to 6.3% by 2013.
“If you look at the arts and sciences, which is really where people are worried…they climb very quickly. Five years out, 10 years out, we find they have the same performance as other students,” Gupta said, adding companies quickly recognize the critical-thinking skills possessed by entry-level employees with degrees and then begin promoting them.
“But not going to university because you’re scared you won’t get a job — the statistics don’t show that.”
