You can see how education was a great equalizer of opportunity. The unemployment for people with no high school diploma was at a peak of 15.9 percent during the last cycle, while it was at a peak of 11.1 percent for those with a high school diploma, 8.9 percent for Associate’s degrees, and only 5.0 percent for Bachelor’s degrees. In other words, after the Great Recession there was an almost 11 percentage point difference between the highest unemployment rate for people who didn’t finish high school, versus people with Bachelor’s degrees. What a difference education makes in the job market!
