(MintPress) – Advanced college degrees are not translating into career success for a growing number of Ph.D. and Master’s degrees holders in the United States. In fact, an opposite trend is occurring: Far more people with advanced degrees are turning to food stamps and public assistance to get by as unemployment and underemployment plagues the demographic. A number of factors are working against Ph.D. holders, such as higher unemployment rates for particular degrees, increased student loan debt and higher cost of living.
ABC News reports that public assistance for Ph.D. degree holders has tripled since 2007, from 9,776 to 33,655 in 2010. For Master’s degree holders, the numbers rose from 101,682 in 2007 to 293,029 in 2010. Among the services most sought after for the struggling graduates are Medicaid, food stamps and Women, and Infants and Children (WIC) – a federal program that provides food for pregnant or breastfeeding women and children under the age of five.
A 2011 look at college majors with the highest unemployment rate shows some correlation of popular degrees and the chances of finding a full-time job. Some of the most common advanced degrees obtained for both men and women include law, clinical psychology, education, business administration and management and engineering. However, some of the highest unemployment rates for degree holders include areas in psychology, legal studies and management.
Also ubiquitous on the list of major with the highest unemployment are degrees in fine arts, liberal arts, graphic design and humanities. The Chronicle of Higher Education profiled 51-year-old Elliot Stegall, who followed his passion by continuing graduate work in film studies, now finds that he is only able to get scarce work as a part-time adjunct professor at small colleges. With the low wages unable to comfortably pay bills, Stegall and his wife, who have two kids, receive food stamps, WIC support and Medicaid.
“As a man, I felt like I was a failure. I had devoted myself to the world of cerebral activity. I had learned a practical skill that was elitist,” Stegall said. “Perhaps I should have been learning a skill that the economy supports.”
As for majors the economy is currently being supportive of, those with advanced medical degrees are faring well. The national unemployment rate is below 3 percent for medical technology technicians, nursing, treatment therapy professions and medical assisting services.
Student loans
The issue of student loan debt in America has become political tinder after total outstanding debt for student eclipsed $1 trillion recently. Partly due to the skyrocketing rates of borrowing for school has been the surge in tuition. Last year, it was found that the average public college cost surged 8.3 percent across America, making public schools inch closer to private institutions cost-wise.
“For the fifth consecutive year, the percentage increase in average tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities was higher than the percentage increase at private nonprofit four-year colleges,” according to The College Board, a group dedicated to higher education research.
Advanced degree earners have been far from immune from borrowing. According to Finaid.org, 55 percent of those seeking a Master’s degree are taking out loans to pay for the schooling, while nearly 46 percent of those in a doctorate program are borrowing. The average cumulative debt for a Master’s program is $31,031, and $57,860 for the doctoral degree.
The most recent statistics show that the national default rate for student loan repayment in 2009 was 8.8 percent, up from 7 percent in 2008. With a national unemployment rate of 8.1 percent and jobless rates anywhere from 16 percent to 19.5 percent in fields such as clinical psychology and miscellaneous arts, many of America’s best education citizens rely on assistance just to get by.
“I’m grateful for government assistance. Without it, my family and I would certainly be homeless and destitute,” Stegall said. “But living on the dole is excruciatingly embarrassing and a constant reminder that I must have done something terribly wrong along the way to deserve this fate.”
Redefining the position of professor
Stegall is not unemployed – he’s underemployed, a situation in which someone is employed part-time when their needs require full-time work. And he’s not alone: around the country, colleges and universities are turning to adjunct professors – a part-time faculty member that makes significantly less than their full-time counterpart. Many who earn advanced degrees hope to attain a job teaching the subject matter they spent years learning, but trends have shown that the available jobs do not pay well enough to earn a living on.
A study of nine prominent colleges and universities around the St. Louis’ region showed that adjunct professor usage rose from 10 percent in 2002 to 50 percent in 2011 at most schools. The University of Missouri-St. Louis saw a 55.8 percent jump in that same time frame.
The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that many adjunct professors bounce back and forth between federal assistance depending on the class load they are able to take on. Many also work in retail or as wait staff in restaurants to facilitate more income.
“The shift away from full-time faculty is just something — except at the richest institutions — that is going to continue to occur,” Ronald Ehrenberg, director of the Cornell University Higher Education Research Institute, told thonline.com. “That’s a cost savings thing. It’s as simple as that.”
Matthew Williams, co-founder and vice president of the New Faculty Majority, an advocacy group for nontenure-track faculty, notes that college administrations are oftentimes oblivious to the new and growing trend of adjunct professors who could qualify for welfare.
“It’s the dirty little secret of higher education,” said Williams. “Many administrators are not aware of the whole extent of the problem. But all it takes is for somebody to run the numbers to see that their faculty is eligible for welfare assistance.”
The problem has only been exacerbated by a growing cost of living, as data last year show that it is now more expensive to live than it was prior to the recession. Despite a decrease in clothing prices, the cost of shelter, vehicles and medical care have all exponentially risen. The Chained Consumer Price Index showed that there had been month-to-month growth of consumer costs every month since 2009.