Luckily for us, Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce continues to set the record straight on the continuing value of a college degree.  Make no mistake about it, even as more and more students flock to college and even in the midst of a recession with high unemployment rates for everyone, “college is still the best option.”

In a report posted to the center’s Web site this week, the authors note that while emphasis has been placed on the recent declines in wages for BA holders, “pundits have erroneously taken this statistical detail to imply that there are no longer advantages to a college diploma.”  They misunderstand the differences between the supply and demand for college workers and the wage premium of college degrees.  The report adds, “the demand for college can be rising dramatically, but if the supply keeps up with the demand, college wages will not increase.”

And the two really important questions for the public and for policymakers are: 1) is going to college better than not going in terms of real potential earnings?; and 2) to grow the economy and meet demand, do we really need more college graduates? The answer to both questions is definitively “yes.”

The Georgetown report notes that, while real wages of workers with BA degrees may have declined a bit in recent years, the wage premium between a BA degree and a high school degree has declined very little.  In 2008, college graduates still earned 1.94 times as much as high school graduates, down from a peak of 2.13 times in 2006.

Moreover, one can see in several very up-to-date charts on the Georgetown Center’s Web site that employment growth is set to resume in 2011 and that by 2018, thirty million new and replacement jobs will require at least some college education.  In fact, when the recession ends, as the report notes, “most of the non-college jobs lost will not be coming back, and a growing share of new job openings will require some college.”

Clearly, more college graduates are needed in large part because the workplace demands far more of workers today.  In fact, not only is it the smart choice to pursue a college degree, but students should pursue a degree that provides all the outcomes of a good liberal education, regardless of what major they choose.  A survey of employers that AAC&U will be releasing next month found, for instance, that 91 percent of employers agree that they are “asking employees to take on more responsibilities and to use a broader set of skills than in the past.”  Eighty-eight percent agree that “to succeed in their company, employees need higher levels of learning and knowledge than they did in the past.”

This is totally consistent with earlier studies AAC&U has commissioned as part of its Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative.  Keep an eye on AAC&U’s Web site for the full report on this survey of employers conducted just last month.