It turns out that jobless workers with that level of schooling have the longest duration of unemployment among all education groups, according to Labor Department statistics.The Times goes on to explain, using the words of Georgetown economist Harry Holzer:
It might be that folks with associate degrees are skilled enough that they won't take just any job, and spend more time looking for something better. (However, employers) may not believe their skills are high enough for what they need in many cases.Translation: I believe having earned an A.A. makes me too skilled for menial work. Employers with non-menial openings see no reason to settle for my Associates degree when the market is well-supplied with unemployed baccalaureate degrees.
Employers may also believe community colleges don't improve the higher order thinking and communicating skills of their graduates. Perhaps they are too often correct.
Routine non-manual work for which an A.A. holder might qualify is exactly the sort of work being automated out of existence or off-shored. If an algorithm can be written to explain the decision tree of a job holder, a computer can normally do the job faster, cheaper, and with far less drama.
