You have chosen to return to college to finish your degree. Describe Essay

You have chosen to return to college to finish your degree. Describe reasons why you made this decision and persuade a friend to do the same - Essay Example In the first decade of the 21st century the United States lost 5.8 million manufacturing jobs (Americanmanufacturing, 2011). The jobs available in the US marketplace have shifted into the knowledge and service economy. In order to compete in the new job marketplace it is imperative to obtain a formal education at an accredited college or university. Without a college degree the only jobs that are available are minimum wage jobs and even those are becoming scarcer and companies are diluting those jobs by offering part-time instead of full-time employment. The unemployment rate in the United States has gone up during the last few years. The unemployment in the United States in July 2011 was 9.1% (Bls, 2011). Due to the fact that more people are unemployed the level of competition was gone up and people that have better credentials are getting the jobs in the marketplace. The most important educational credential employers seek in new recruits is a college education. I have realized that the only way for me to get a good job is to go back to school to earn a degree. A college education increases a person’s chances to get a job and the job obtained will have higher wages. A person with a bachelor’s degree will earn an extra $0.9 million over their lifetime in comparison to a high school graduate; while people with a master’s degree will earn $1.3 more than a high school diploma and $0.4 million more than a bachelor’s degree (Longley, 2011). The past constraints that sometimes hurt the ability of adults to obtain a college education no longer apply. For instance a working adult sometimes had the excuse that he could not go back to college because of employment obligations. Time used to be a variable that hurt a lot of working adults. Due to advances in technology there are solutions available for working adults. Online universities such as the