As need for college grows, Arizona to lead most states in jobs for dropouts
Posted: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 3:57 pm | Updated: 4:38 pm, Tue Jun 15, 2010.
A new national study shows that by 2018 Arizona will be one of the top five states with jobs available for high school dropouts.
But conversely, just more than 60 percent of jobs in Arizona will require some type of postsecondary education by 2018, according to the study released Tuesday by The Center on Education and the Workforce.
Arizona's vast tourism industry which creates service-related positions - housekeepers, food service, grounds keepers - is driving the growth of jobs for those lacking a diploma, according to Lee McPheters, research professor of economics at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
"You come to Arizona to play golf," he said. "Business travel and tourist travel are important to the Arizona economy, more so than other states."
But Arizona's expected population growth will also fuel a need for more doctors, nurses and others in health care, McPheters said. Those jobs all require postsecondary education.
The report released Tuesday, "Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements through 2018," was created out of Georgetown University. It looks at job growth by sector and educational requirements across the country. Nationally, 63 percent of jobs will require postsecondary education, from associate's degrees to college training to bachelor's and graduate degrees. In Arizona, 61 percent of jobs will require postsecondary education.
"The economy (that follows) this recession will be very different than the economy we entered it with. It will require more and more postsecondary education. We've come to the point we've been headed for a long time: If you don't have some type of postsecondary education or training you will have a much reduced chance of earning a middle class wage," Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Center on Education and the Workforce, said Tuesday morning during a web conference.