Tuesday, December 7, 2010

"Two Americas," Income Distribution and Education



Something that Ben Bernanke said in the 60 minutes interview has been sticking in my brain. When asked about income disparity, Bernanke commented on the current situation with the unemployment rate and educational achievement. To that end, consider this chart from Calculated Risk that shows the unemployment rate by educational achievement. Notice that the lower one's educational achievement, the higher the unemployment rate. Also notice the wide margin -- less education means a remarkably higher rate of unemployment. I realize that education is not the be all and the end all but it is obviously a very important factor in this equation.