Fewer jobs added; jobless rate climbs

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Oct 30, 2004
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Originally posted by: Wreckem

Do you know how many legal jobs are created every year?

On the topic of unemployment. There are PLENTY of jobs out there, one just needs the education.

<---- Highschool dropout, will have my MBA and JD in 2011.

I'm pretty sure that we have a huge oversupply of lawyers in this country. Based on previous informal research, our law schools are probably producing about twice as many lawyers (41,000/year) as the economy can support. Heck, we even have a large oversupply of patent lawyers now (engineering or advanced science degree + JD).

My advice--make sure you graduate in the top 10% of the class (Order of the Coif), get on the best journal you can, and try to transfer to a more highly rated law school. Also, be sure to get Jay Foonberg's book "How to Start and Build a Law Practice", which is very highly regarded by solo practitioners. I know that no one plans to go solo out of law school, but it's important to always keep it in mind as a potential option. Sadly--because we do have an oversupply, most solos earn meager incomes or leave the practice of law for something that pays.

I think that what Americans are going to discover is that people's merely going to school to obtain an increasing amount of advanced degrees will not magically create the upper middle class jobs that they are seeking. In other words, we're going to discover that education is not a substitute for sound economic policy. The politicians and the news media love to promote the notion that America needs more and better education, and the American people buy into it hook, line, and sinker. The irony is that the reason why Americans are investing an increasing amount of time and money on obtaining advanced degrees is because the job market for those with bachelors degrees has deteriorated, resulting in today's eduation arms race.

Keep drinking the Kool-Aid and keep wearing the rose-colored glasses if you want. Perhaps, after you've graduated and if you have to face the reality of paying off your student loans while working either a low-paying entry-level lawyer job at a small local law firm or working involuntarily-out-of-field doing whatever, you'll see things differently.
 
Oct 30, 2004
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Originally posted by: Wreckem

Do you know how many dr positions are created every year?(and even then we have a huge shortage)

It's illegitimate to point out that the nation has a shortage of physicians and to then use that to support your contention that the nation has a shortage of college-educated people to fulfill middle class and upper middle class jobs.

The physician shortage (if any), is artificial because the government and the medical establishment limit the number of people who can become doctors. In contrast, the supply of people who want to become doctors far exceeds the number of slots available in medical schools. So, presumably, in a true free market economy where the government didn't regulate the number of people who could become physicians, the supply of doctors would increase dramatically.