Get a daily digest of the most important stories in Urban Milwaukee
College students attend class Friday, Feb. 18, 2022, at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Angela Major/WPR
Most of the high-paying jobs that will open in Wisconsin through the end of the decade will require at least a bachelor's degree.
That's according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum, which examined employment projections from the state Department of Workforce Development for 2020-2030.
The report defines high-wage jobs as those with average wages of $50,000 per year. This measure exceeds the state's median annual wage of $41,150 as of 2020.
Joe PietrangeloA senior researcher at the Wisconsin Policy Forum and author of the report said the study was intended to provide additional context to debates surrounding the value of higher education as many grapple with student loan payments.
“We were specifically interested in those high-wage jobs because that is part of the discussion,” he said.
While 74% of all projected annual job openings in the state through 2030 would typically not require a college degree or credentials, such occupations account for only 26% of job openings with median salaries of $50,000 or more, the report said.
Of the high-paying annual job opportunities, 58.1% will require a bachelor's or advanced degree, and 5.9% will require an associate's degree or post-secondary certificate, the report says.
“About a third (of the jobs) in this complex are jobs that don't require any type of college credential, but that's still a good number of jobs,” Pietrangelo said.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum also found that 91 percent of projected job openings with a median salary of $75,000 or more require a bachelor's or advanced degree.
These figures include job opportunities after retirement as well as new jobs created. When looking exclusively at projected new jobs, the report says nearly 70 percent of high-paying jobs will require at least a bachelor's degree.
“What it says to me is that the future looks like it favors higher education more than the current job market that the state has,” Pietrangelo said. “This is another indication that a college degree will definitely be valuable.”
An August 2023 report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum also found that low-wage jobs were more likely to be hit hard by the pandemic recession.
“The jobs that performed better in the last decade and then during the pandemic were higher-paying jobs, which — as our new analysis shows — tended to be more likely to require a college degree,” Pietrangelo said.
After the report was issued, the President of the University of Wisconsin Jay Rothman He took to social media to highlight what he called “further evidence of the value of higher education.”
“There is no better value for higher education than our collection of 13 universities serving all of Wisconsin,” Rothman wrote. “We are the most affordable in the Midwest, and the average debt burden on our graduates is lower now than it was 10 years ago.”
Nearly two-thirds of high-paying jobs require higher education
Before the Wisconsin Policy Forum report was released, another study from the University of Wisconsin-Extension found that state residents with a bachelor's degree, on average, earned more money over their entire careers than those with just a high school diploma. The Extension report found that lifetime income for individuals with a bachelor's degree reached nearly $2.5 million, but only $1.6 million for those with a high school diploma.
But the extension report also noted evidence of a gender pay gap, even for those with college degrees. The report says that women with a bachelor's degree earn, on average, 28.8 percent less than men with the same qualifications. This is slightly lower than the 33.7% wage gap between men and women with only a high school diploma.
“The decision to invest in education has a gender dimension,” she wrote. Steven DillerThe report's author is a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Whether this increase in average earnings from pursuing higher education justifies the associated costs is an individual decision.”
Information about income and job opportunities for those with a college degree can be useful to guidance counselors, parents and students, Pietrangelo said.
“Knowing whether college is right for a particular person, what college they're going to go to and what they're going to study, it's all really complicated,” he said. “It all depends on the individual level. We're certainly not saying college is for everyone.
Listen to WPR's report
Report: Most high-paying future job opportunities in Wisconsin require a college degree Originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
