In a study released yesterday by the Georgetown University Center for Education and the Workforce, researchers show that students with college degrees are excelling in the current job market. The report reveals that half of the jobs lost since December 2007 have been recovered. Since the economic recession, approximately 2.2. million of these recovered jobs came from students with post-secondary degrees. Additionally, workers with college degrees are shown to consistently receive higher wages (almost more than 30 percent) than those with merely a high school diploma.

“It is a tough job market for college graduates but far worse for those without a college education,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, the Center’s director and co-author of the report, said in the press release. “At a time when more and more people are debating the value of postsecondary education, this data shows that your chances of being unemployed increase dramatically without a college degree.”

The study states that seven percent of college graduates are unemployed and 14 percent are employed in jobs below their skill level. The unemployment rate for recent high school graduates is approximately 24 percent.

Male college enrollment also increased since 2006, surpassing that of female enrollment.

The study appeared today on National Public Radio’s show “All Things Considered.” Carnevale spoke on the show about the importance of the study. “The only thing that’s more expensive than going to college is not going to college,” Carnevale said on the show. “You really don’t have a choice.”

Of the job-creating industries, the healthcare industry took the lead by adding over one million jobs for people with post-graduate degrees, followed by professional and business services with 750,000 jobs. Government jobs, on the other hand, have lost 14,000 college jobs since January 2010.

Last year, the Center for Education and the Workforce released a study on the value of college degrees with a major-by-major breakdown. The study largely revealed that degrees in Education can garner lifetime advantages as low as $240,000 while those in Engineering can be as high as $1,000,000.

Photo by Georgetown Center for Education and the Workforce

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