Trends: More jobs but less pay for the less educated

It’s getting easier to find a job with no more than a high school education, according to a fresh portrait of the makeup of the Tri-City workforce.

More than 36 percent of jobs in Benton and Franklin counties required a high school degree or less in 2014. As a share of the total workforce, that’s rising. Jobs not requiring a degree accounted for an 18 percent larger slice of the workforce pie compared to 2000, when 31 percent of jobs required no education beyond high school.

While the job prospects for those who lack post-secondary degrees are apparently increasing, low-education jobs typically pay a fraction of higher-education posts, note the authors of Benton-Franklin Trends, an initiative of the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis at Eastern Washington University to measure the civic, educational and economic health of the community.

Jobs demanding a bachelor’s degree or higher accounted for a 10 percent smaller slice of the workforce pie in 2014 compared to 2000.

Nearly 26 percent of jobs required an associate’s degree or some college in 2014, a 3 percent larger piece of the pie.

The trend of more jobs for people with less education wasn’t unique to the Tri-Cities. Statewide, 32 percent of jobs required a high school degree or less in 2014, an increase from 2000. Likewise, the number of jobs requiring a bachelor’s or graduate degree decreased slightly, falling to 27.7 percent from 27.87 percent.

The figures are based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies Quarterly Workforce Indicators Explorer. Trends is published weekly.

Visit bit.ly/BFTrends for more information.

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Trends: More jobs but less pay for the less educated."