High school dropouts fall further behind despite improving economy

Job prospects for high school dropouts have gotten a lot more grim these past few years.

Even though the unemployment rate around the country is improving, high school dropouts are struggling worse than ever to find employment.

The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that about 1.8 million more college graduates have found work since January 2010, when the economy began to recover enough to provide new jobs, but about 128,000 high-school dropouts lost work in the same period, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.

More than 60 percent of the 25 million Americans over age 25 who don’t hold a high school diploma are unemployed. And those who are lucky enough to find jobs certainly don’t make much.

High-school dropouts earn about $23,400 on average, compared with $33,500 for those with a high-school diploma and $54,700 for four-year college grads, according to the labor bureau.

That wage gap is only expected to grow as jobs require more education and skills.

Jobs that traditionally have employed less-educated males, such as construction and basic manufacturing, have dwindled. Men with limited reading or math skills also struggle to be accepted into job-apprentice programs.

Of the 40 percent of dropouts who are working, many are immigrants, in large part because they gravitate toward jobs at the low end of the labor market, such as child care, cleaning, restaurant work and landscaping.

Many manufacturers have high-end equipment that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They don’t want to have to replace those due to an undereducated worker.

"You bring in a guy, and he can't read or write and doesn't understand mechanics and he can destroy the machine on his first day," said Kenneth Mueller, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Metalico Inc., which recycles metal and makes new metal products at locations near Pittsburgh.

In 2020, there will be nearly six million more high-school dropouts than jobs available to such U.S. workers, according to a 2011 McKinsey Global Institute study. At the same time, there will be a shortage of about 1.5 million college-educated workers by 2020.

"High-school dropouts are being left further and further behind," said Susan Lund, head of research for the institute, part of the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm.

What do you think about the labor market for high school dropouts? Do you think these statistics will help encourage students to earn a diploma? What experiences have you had with finding jobs for dropouts?