Motley my answer to your legitimate question is ...

1. The value of teaching and learning algebra in high school isn't about specific job requirements at all. It's about learning how to learn, how to juggle concepts, and how to jump out of the tangible now and then to step back and see things in theory. 

2. It's also about giving high school kids options for the future, instead of predetermining for them, when they are barely 14 or so, what they can and can't do. 

Story: One of my high school friends was a "dumb kid" in the "dumb class" who would have been the first one cut out of algebra if he or the educators had been given that as a choice. It turned out he was just a late bloomer. He ended up acing college, going to medical school, and becoming a doctor. He got to laugh later, happily, at the "dumb" determination that he had to put up with. And he was a really good doctor.