Why is the UK an outlier with a declining graduate wage premium unlike other countries which also expanded graduate numbers?
Rather than this being related to university provision, its actually linked to the UK problems with stagnant productivity & the scarcity of jobs where graduates actually utilise their knowledge & skills.... in other words the problem lies not in education but in the dysfunctional management of the workforce.
Its the UK's rubbish management (again)!
#universities
h/t FT
The UK has also made political choices that favour a low-skill-low-wage economy, whch many of its European neighbours have avoided.
The healthy trade union movements and company legal/financial infrastructures favouring employee participation in most north-west European countries, for example, raise labour costs and therefor push companies to automate, creating long-term productivity gains and high skill requirements.
Their better balanced economies - less dependent on services - also create more high-skill-high-wage jobs, while the UK creates a few such jobs in the City of London - but lots in low-skill-low-pay areas like hospitality.
The mistakes of Thatcherism compounded by the Blair/Brown governments' failure to correct them, still haunt the UK - and they're still being actively propagated, for example in the continuing neglect of arts and media funding and education - one of the few areas in which the UK has absolutely excelled, has created enviable incomes and skill sets, and has the natural advantage on the world stage of the English language.
Yes, financialisation rules and graduates in areas that don't support corporate profit-making are unable to pursue their careers even when there's valuable work that needs to be done in their academic areas.
yes, I completely agree, this is certainly a politic choice made in the light of a specific way of understanding the economy... in a sense, as so often we've chosen wrongly & now want to blame someone else for the consequences
