Gen Z sceptical about degrees
An Indeed survey cited on social media reports 51% of Gen Z graduates view their degree as a “waste of money,” with 83% favoring skilled trades and many employers dropping degree requirements. The posts highlight how ROI concerns are shaping younger graduates’ attitudes toward higher education and career choices. (x.com)
A new Indeed survey found 51% of Generation Z graduates say their degree was a waste of money. (indeed.com) Indeed said the finding came from a survey of 772 U.S. adults with an associate degree or higher, conducted by The Harris Poll and published on April 21, 2025. In the same research, 36% of all respondents said their degree was a waste of time or money, and 60% said they could do their current job just as well without it. (indeed.com) The generational split was wide in Indeed’s data: 20% of Baby Boomers called their degree a waste of money, compared with 51% of Generation Z. Indeed also found 52% of respondents said they would not have attended college if a degree had not been required for so many jobs. (indeed.com) Debt sits underneath much of that skepticism. Indeed said 52% of respondents graduated with student debt, and 41% of borrowers said their degree was a waste of money, versus 31% of graduates without debt. (indeed.com) Federal Reserve data show student borrowing remains common: 30% of all U.S. adults said they took out loans for their education, and the median outstanding balance in 2024 among borrowers with debt for their own education was between $20,000 and $24,999. (federalreserve.gov) The payoff from college has also stopped widening the way it did for earlier generations. A 2025 Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco working paper said the college wage premium grew through the 1980s and early 2000s but has been “largely unchanged” in recent years. (frbsf.org) At the same time, employers have been pulling degree requirements from more job postings. A 2024 report from Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute said the annual number of roles with dropped degree requirements rose nearly fourfold from 2014 to 2023. (hbs.edu) That shift is real, but the same report said hiring outcomes have moved more slowly than job ads. Burning Glass and Harvard estimated that fewer than one in 700 hires came from employers dropping degree requirements, showing that skills-based hiring has expanded faster in postings than in actual recruiting. (burningglassinstitute.org) The skilled-trades numbers circulating alongside the Indeed survey come from a different poll, not the Indeed data. A 2024 survey cited by USA Today said 83% of respondents believed learning a skilled trade could be a better path to economic security than college, including 90% of people who already had degrees. (usatoday.com) The picture that emerges is narrower than the viral posts suggest: younger graduates are more doubtful about college costs, employers are easing some credential rules, and debt is a big divider. The degree has not disappeared from hiring, but its price tag and payoff are being judged more directly than they were a decade ago. (indeed.com)
