Recently, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) released a survey showing that employers anticipate hiring 13% more graduating college students from the Class of 2013 than they hired from the Class of 2012, a sign that hiring has finally begun to pick up in the sluggish economic recovery. In September, the unemployment rate fell to 7.8%, nearly equalling the rate it was at in the months directly following the economic collapse. While not all sectors of the economy are feeling the effects of increased hiring, a rising number are. The chief benefactors are those with advanced higher education degrees. US students with master's degree enjoy unemployment levels near 3%, far lower than the national average, allowing degree-holders much greater freedom to pursue their goals without the anxiety created so easily by a volatile economy. Yet, recently these benefits have been increasingly extended to ambitious learners around the globe through the use of online degree programs and freelance opportunities.
While not all college degree programs guarantee job security and lucrative employment, graduate students who choose their major based on available data can find many degree programs that offer a significant return on investment. Physician Assistant Studies programs, for example, offer mid-career median pay of $97,000 with projected employment increases at 30%, indicating far lower unemployment within the profession than the national average. Students majoring in engineering can fare even better, with electrical engineerings commonly making $121,000 by mid-career and petroleum engineers often making as much as $166,400 yearly.
A study conducted by the US Census Bureau illustrates that over the course of the average lifetime, a college graduate will earn $2.4 million, and more than $8,000 more per year that those with only a bachelor's degree, for a 15% higher annual income. Of course, there are some majors that fair far better than others. Engineering students, for example, earn more than any other major on average, with lifetime earnings at $3.6 million. The top earning physicians or surgeons, meanwhile -- often biology or chemistry majors in the early days of their studies -- can often earn over $6.5 million.
For students and aspiring students in developing nations around the world, online learning provides unprecedented access to educational resources that many otherwise never would have had the chance to experience. “Today economic growth is as much a process of knowledge accumulation as of capital accumulation,” says Jamil Salmi, higher education economist at the World Bank. “The decreased importance of physical distance means that the best university in any country can decide to open a branch anywhere in the world or to reach out across borders using the internet or satellite communication links, effectively competing with any national university on its own territory.” Salmi offers as an example Cornell University, which has created the “Essential Electronic Agricultural Library,” consisting of 173 CD-ROMs storing text from 140 journals for the past four years and can be shared with libraries at universities in developing countries around the world.
The open education movement, pioneered and developed by universities like MIT and Carnegie Mellon -- whose respective programs Open CourseWare and Open Learning Initiative -- offer extensive content and software resources from top higher education institutions. In recent years, Coursera, which began at Stanford, has compiled lessons and course lectures from dozens of top schools, all of which students and instructors in developing nations can utilize for free and adapt as they see fit.
While online programs in higher education offer citizens of developing nations new opportunities to gain valuable job training, many are utilizing the internet for employment as well. Websites like Freelancer.com and Elance.com, which allow individuals to hire workers for short contract jobs on a freelance basis, have grown significantly in popularity in recent years. While much of the work offers come from nations like the US and UK with large, developed economies, a growing proportion of freelance workers on these sites come from nations in the developing world. Individuals with little hope of finding work locally are taking advantage of the opportunity to support their families. Out of nearly 3 million global users on Freelance.com, one-third of the all applicants come from India, while workers from Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines make up an additional 20%. By comparison, 11% are from the US. “Most people in the world live on $10 a day or less,”says Matt Barrie, chief executive of Freelancer.com. “Now, by going online, you can earn your month's salary in a few hours or days.”
As hiring in the US finally begins to pick up, revitalized job seekers will likely find they are now competing in a much evolved marketplace. Online resources have spread education and employment opportunities around the globe, allowing ambitious workers in developing nations a chance to compete with citizens of the world's wealthiest countries. While these changes may lead to unease among some workers, the growth in economic and academic growth around the globe as well as increased exposure to cultural diversity represent valuable new opportunities for those willing to take advantage of them. By embracing educational opportunities, those in the US and around the globe can take control of their respective careers and future to a greater degree than ever before.
Sophia Foster is a researcher and writer for http://www.onlinemastersdegree.org, a resource designed to deliver current and prospective students information about graduate school.
