The Economy Is Improving. That Means Fewer People Want to Go to College

By Akane Otani
September 24, 2014 2:17 PM EDT
For the second straight year, the number of people
starting college fell in 2013, new government data
show, as a recovering job market drew adults away
from classrooms and toward paid work. The drop
represents the biggest two-year decline in
enrollment since before the Great Recession.
Two-year colleges took the greatest hit, seeing
enrollment fall 10 percent even as enrollment ticked
up 1 percent at four-year colleges, the U.S. Census
Bureau reported Wednesday. When the economy is
weak, people tend to seek education to improve their
prospects or wait out a shaky job market. As jobs
return, some who might have chosen college take
more readily available opportunities instead.
Community colleges and trade schools are
particularly vulnerable to this trend, since they’re
seen as teaching practical skills and therefore are
most in demand when jobs are scarce.
Enrollment surged at many community colleges
around October 2009, when the U.S. unemployment
rate climbed to a 26-year high. In fact, higher
education more broadly became quite attractive
during that time: More students enrolled in college
from 2006 to 2011 than in the 10 years leading up to
2006.
In 2013, 463,000 fewer young adults enrolled in
college than in 2012, suggesting that the recession-
induced enrollment spike is over. While the economy
remains weak in some areas, it has begun to pick up
steam. The Federal Reserve hinted in recent months
that it would slowly raise interest rates from rock
bottom as economic indicators, such as jobless
claims, consumer confidence, and GDP, point to a
slow but steady recovery.
That’s good news for job-seekers but not for
tuition-dependent colleges, which could find
themselves on the cusp of financial failure if they do
not attract enough students.
Other takeaways from the Census Bureau’s
numbers: Neither age nor race seemed to make a
difference in the latest decline in college enrollment.
The drop was equally divided between the young
and the old, and enrollment stalled among Hispanic
students, black students, and Asian students in
2013.