畢業季：一個好學位能抵抗經濟衰退？

Young adults have long faced a rough job market, but in the last recession and its aftermath, college graduates did not lose nearly as much ground as their less-educated peers, according to a new study, published by the Pew Charitable Trusts, shows that among Americans age 21 to 24, the drop in employment and income was much steeper among people who lacked a college degree.
長期以來，年輕人面臨着嚴峻的就業市場形勢，但一項新的研究表明，在上一次經濟衰退及其餘波中，高校畢業生的失業率要明顯低於教育程度較低的同齡人。皮尤慈善信託基金(Pew Charitable Trusts)週三公佈的研究結果表明，在21歲至24歲的美國年輕人中，沒有大學學歷的人就業率和收入水平下降更顯著。

The findings come as many published articles and books have told the stories of young college graduates unable to find work, and questioned the conventional wisdom that a college education is a worthwhile investment and the key to opportunity and social mobility. The study did not take into account the cost of going to college.
傳統觀念認爲大學教育是一項有價值的投資，並且是締造機會和社會流動性的關鍵。但此前出版的許多文章和著作描述了年輕的大學畢業生找不到工作的故事，對這一傳統觀念產生質疑。這項研究並沒有考慮到上大學的費用。

“This shows that any amount of post-secondary education does improve the labor market outcomes for those recent graduates,” said Diana Elliott, the research manager for Pew’s Economic Mobility Project. “This is not necessarily to discredit those individual stories.”Among those whose highest degree was a high school diploma, only 55 percent had jobs even before the downturn, and that fell to 47 percent after it. For young people with an associate’s degree, the employment rate fell from 64 percent to 57 percent.
皮尤研究中心經濟流動性項目(Economic Mobility Project)的研究主管黛安娜·埃利奧特(Diana Elliott)說：“這表明，對於那些剛畢業的學生來說，任何程度的高等教育確實提高了勞動力市場結果。這並不一定是要質疑那些個別故事。”在最高教育程度爲中學畢業的年輕人中，即使在經濟衰退之前，也只有55%的人有工作，經濟衰退後這一數字更是下降到了47%。對於持有副學士學位（associate’s degree，完成社區大學、二年制專科學校課程後取得的學位，相當於四年制大學的首兩年課程。——譯註）的年輕人，就業率從經濟衰退前的64%下降至衰退後的57%。

Those with a bachelor’s degree started off in the strongest position and weathered the downturn best, with employment slipping from 69 percent to 65 percent. (The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded a similar decline, about four percentage points, among all people over 20, at any education level.)
持有學士學位的年輕人在經濟衰退前就業率最高，並最好地經受住了經濟衰退的考驗，他們的就業率從經濟衰退前的69%下降到經濟衰退後的65%。（聯邦勞工統計局[The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics]的數據反映了類似的降幅：涵蓋所有教育程度的20歲以上人口就業率降幅約爲4個百分點。）

One surprise in the data, Ms. Elliott said, had to do with “the prevailing speculation that people who couldn’t find work were returning to school, enhancing their training.” In fact, college enrollment over all rose sharply for several years, driven primarily by older students, before leveling off in 2011. But Pew’s study found that among people age 21 to 24, the rate of college enrollment actually declined slightly, during and after the recession.
埃利奧特女士說，這些數據還反映出一個令人意外的現象，那就是“找不到工作的年輕人會回到校園以增強技能訓練的普遍猜測”。事實上高校入學人數在過去幾年急劇上升，直至2011年才觸頂回穩，但這主要是由於大量大齡學生進入大學所致。而皮尤研究中心的研究發現，在21歲至24歲的人羣中，經濟衰退期間和之後的大學入學率實際上均略有下降。