&gt; I&#x27;d be curious about pre-recession numbers of high school grad employment vs. now, post-recession.<p>Don&#x27;t forget automation, which is behind a lot of the discrepancy between recovered business sales&#x2F;overall production figures while the jobs numbers lag behind. Automation means fewer employees getting more work done.<p>&gt; I also think it&#x27;s a tremendous disadvantage to say &quot;Oh yeah, vocational school can get to you an associate&#x27;s or a college degree&quot; because at some point we have GOT to stop acting like a college degree is the be-all-end-all.<p>This times a THOUSAND, I know plenty of people who make really good money and left their vocational schools with useful, in-demand skills and practically no debt. (I&#x27;m a little jealous TBH, though I still prefer my desk job.)