News : Why are so many grads driving taxi?
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Edited
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Originally posted by j007:Edited
Edited
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so blur lah..cant read a sentense..
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TS , interesting topic but too blurrrrrr lar, cannot read.
Is this happening in Singapore ?
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Originally posted by 347540427:
so blur lah..cant read a sentense..
Why are so many grads driving taxis?Opinion | Updated today at 01:44 AM
By Peter Orszag
IT'S a parent's nightmare: shelling out big money for college, then seeing the graduate unable to land a job that requires high-level skills. This situation may be growing more common, unfortunately, because the demand for cognitive skills associated with higher education, after rising sharply until 2000, has since been in decline. So concludes new research by economists Paul Beaudry and David Green of the University of British Columbia and Benjamin Sand of York University in Toronto.
This reversal in demand has caused high-skilled workers to accept lower-level jobs, pushing lower-skilled people even further down the occupational ladder or out of work altogether. If the researchers are right (which is not yet clear), the consequences are huge and troubling - and not just for college grads and their parents.
Let's start with some basic facts. There have always been some graduates who wind up in jobs that don't require a college degree. But the share seems to be growing.
In 1970, only one in 100 taxi drivers and chauffeurs in the United States had a college degree, according to an analysis of labour statistics by Ohio University's Richard Vedder, Christopher Denhart and Jonathan Robe. Today, 15 of 100 do.
It's hard to believe this is because the skill required to drive a taxi has risen substantially since 1970. If anything, GPS technology may have had the opposite effect. (Acquiring "the knowledge" of London streets, as taxi drivers there are required to do, is cognitively challenging, but it may no longer be necessary.)
Similarly, in 1970, only about 2 per cent of American firefighters had a college degree, compared with more than 15 per cent now. And, according to research by economists Paul Harrington and Andrew Sum of Northeastern University, about one in four bartenders has some sort of degree.
The Beaudry team says that such change has been driven by a decline in the demand for highly skilled work - the opposite of the conventional wisdom about such demand.
The employment rate in "cognitive" occupations - managerial, professional and technical jobs - increased markedly from 1980 to 2000, their research found, but it has since stagnated, even as the supply of skilled workers has continued to grow.
What has changed? One possibility is that the effects of a globalising workforce are creeping up the income scale. Many jobs that once required cognitive skill can be automated. Anything that can be digitised can be done either by computer or by workers abroad.
While the "winner takes all" phenomenon may still mean extremely high returns for workers at the very top, that may be relevant for a shrinking share of college graduates.
Whatever the explanation, the Beaudry team argues that an excess of skilled workers has led them into the "routine" job market - such as sales and clerical jobs - reducing wages there and pushing less-skilled workers into "manual" jobs in construction, farming and so on.
What's puzzling here is that it seems inconsistent with evidence that the wage premium enjoyed by college graduates has persisted. For example, a recent paper by Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic of the University of Toronto found that the earnings premium for American college graduates has risen substantially over the past several decades and that investment in college "appears to pay off for both the average and marginal student".
The still-strong earnings premium strongly suggests that the demand for skill has not collapsed.
After all, if cognitive skills became less valuable in the labour market, wouldn't one expect wages to fall more for college graduates than for others?
Not necessarily, the Beaudry team argues. They find that while wages for jobs requiring cognitive skills have declined, the shift of high-skilled workers into those jobs has depressed wages for manual workers even more.
That's a provocative argument. Still, it may be that the Beaudry team's results are sensitive to the way they define "cognitive" jobs and "manual" ones. Also, it's not entirely clear how much the recent recession has influenced their results.
In any case, the findings will do little to calm the nerves of graduates who are anxious to find jobs.
The cold comfort I can offer is this: Going to college may still be worthwhile - if not to be sure of qualifying for skilled jobs, then at least to avoid the even worse prospects of those who don't get a degree.
The writer is chairman of the financial strategy and solutions group at Citigroup Inc and a former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama administration.
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Originally posted by Smarttech.888:
TS , interesting topic but too blurrrrrr lar, cannot read.
Is this happening in Singapore ?
It's a US based article but I'm not surprised if its happening here, but goes unreported
seems being a TD is not a glam profession
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Now many bosses also drive taxi...
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I understand your interest in highlighting this piece but lets make it clear its never any point or good to compare taxi drivers or professions elsewhere and here.
In the US taxi fares are exhorbitant, you can make very good money doing so. Just like being a waiter there, there you must give tips, tips alone exceed salaries in good restaurants so you have thousands of waiters who do not want promotion because of the tips.
In the UK, London taxi drivers have to answer 3 questions out of a possible 10000 (yes 10K0. if they pass and are licensed they can buy their own cab and again London cab fares are very lucrative.
In Melbourne, taxi licenses can be traded for as much as a 150k (no joke). With the license and buy your own cab, you have a job for life and can easily recover that sum within a few years and the license can be sold or transferred for a fee.
Simply put if taxi licenses can be used to purcharse your vehicle or fleet of cabs like the past, you'll find a lot of people willing to do this trade, grads or no.
For grads driving cabs is always temporary until they can find a job that matches their salary expectation with the promotion and benefits to go. I have met one before, he was drivinga cab just pay his tuition fees for anoverseas masters degree to go with his bachelor's. It's always a temporary thing with them
But not for ordinary blue collar drivers like you, or previous white collar who have been retrenched or need a daily source of income to get by.
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they still haben get passed the initial-D craze
except not sending tofu but ppl
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who would want to drive a cab with a degree!!
no choice, don't drive wait for money to drop from sky!
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aiya degree only, we here also got PhD and MBA driving taxis leh...fark lah, ang mo are alway so proud of their capitalism society, why go care for them, we better look in front, drive carefully, and see if can avoid OBK or not is most important.
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Sigh...
Last time argue this topic until face green green...
Mai la, I won't be able to understand those graduate's thinking, they happy can liao...
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got rule say they cannot hua taxi?
got ex-lawyer sell fishball noodles also wat
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How many grads in SG driving cabs?
So easy get license meh?
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SYZ grad oso sing song nia mah
jimmy ye grad can't even sing song
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other countries, i don't know
in singapore, academical smarties are essential but not complete. those who can achieve something in life are those who complete it with street smart.
so, these academical smarties want to learn some street smart, they can only think of driving a Taxi.......the best way to learn the street.
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Originally posted by charlize:
How many grads in SG driving cabs?
So easy get license meh?
Actually, it is.
Most grads in Singapore do have a driving licence. And if O level grads can pass the vocational test, so can uni grads.
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what next????working at burger king is lucrative too????why not??
if a burger costs $5...then there are like 100 customers in a day....that would be $500/day for that burger alone....or $15,000/mth for a burger.since there are stuff like filet o fish...french fries and chicjen burger...expect another 4 fold increase in days taking or $60k/mth.
yes....if driving taxi is lucrative so is werking at macdonalds in future:)
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Bamboo Ocean Army021,what r u talking about?working in Mac Donald's lucrative?the profits goes to coy. not u!u get a fixed salary!Mac Donald doesn't belong to u!
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Originally posted by Keepthechange666:
Sigh...
Last time argue this topic until face green green...
Mai la, I won't be able to understand those graduate's thinking, they happy can liao...
Lan jiao lah, what is today graduate?? FTs graduate from mumbai U, dakka U or chongqing U can take your job liao, what is graduate? may not even match my Sex 2 standard.Morning just pick up one Chennai graduate from bangalore Uni at simei green condo, given by company including transportation and family medical benefits + maid + and daily allowances.
Singapore Graduates from NTU and NUS still struggling to buy a 3 rooms flat, wash own underwear, struggle to take morning free MRT, take taxis keep looking at meter, end trip, dig here and there for money, graduate ki lan lah, go drive taxis better.
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Originally posted by bowah:
Lan jiao lah, what is today graduate?? FTs graduate from mumbai U, dakka U or chongqing U can take your job liao, what is graduate? may not even match my Sex 2 standard.Morning just pick up one Chennai graduate from bangalore Uni at simei green condo, given by company including transportation and family medical benefits + maid + and daily allowances.
Singapore Graduates from NTU and NUS still struggling to buy a 3 rooms flat, wash own underwear, struggle to take morning free MRT, take taxis keep looking at meter, end trip, dig here and there for money, graduate ki lan lah, go drive taxis better.
spore govt force u to use cpf to take some LJ degree.....totally useless in other countries....so u cannot run.....stay here and be minions.
meanwhile they bring in some "better" brains to breed here and sarpok their agendas... thats the way to move forward.
many prc undergrads in spore uni are handpicked to come here to study, at all levels (sec, jc and uni)....
free hostel accomodation, 1 year foundation prog for english (of course free), allowance of $500 per month....and of course, free uni degree...and the only condition: they must stay here to work for 3-6yrs....
lan sai.... i have to pay my own sch fees, repay the cpf (in cash to my parents cpf acct), and have to fight with these ppl for a job... worse, not all of them have better results than me....knn what is this country doing???
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Originally posted by Samsun:
spore govt force u to use cpf to take some LJ degree.....totally useless in other countries....so u cannot run.....stay here and be minions.
meanwhile they bring in some "better" brains to breed here and sarpok their agendas... thats the way to move forward.
many prc undergrads in spore uni are handpicked to come here to study, at all levels (sec, jc and uni)....
free hostel accomodation, 1 year foundation prog for english (of course free), allowance of $500 per month....and of course, free uni degree...and the only condition: they must stay here to work for 3-6yrs....
lan sai.... i have to pay my own sch fees, repay the cpf (in cash to my parents cpf acct), and have to fight with these ppl for a job... worse, not all of them have better results than me....knn what is this country doing???
Kopitiam boss is only a VITB (today ITE Std)
Fragrance hotel boss is only a Primary 6 educated
Hotel 81 boss is only GCE O level
Bread talk 3rd boss with the biggest share is only Sex 4
Bengawan solo lady aunty boss, no education
st 77 lady boss, only diploma
Shipyard contractor bosses are all pri 6 to sex 2 like me.
Bak kut teh ranggoon, malaysia, no education
Boon tong kee, no education
Popular book initial start up boss, chinese ed
Jean yip, diploma (not local dip)
Lau Char bo (sgforum) firelce, JC only..
and so on
and most local actors and actress are only Sex 4, Zoe Tay was my former primary school junior..every day act pretty only, cannot study..lols
And all these bosses employ graduates??? so ask yourself, is there anything wrong with our education?
From bill gates to warren buffet to steve job to facebook bosses? no one is a graduate (or maybe confer only later in their life)
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The key here is very simply, can you beat the govt? can you beat the rich in singapore? can you overcome the agony of being poor? if you cannot, join the govt, the rich and the business people by either enter politics, network with the rich and do your own business like selling char kway teow.
Typically Singaporean and those staying here, where do they go on weekends? if you study it closely, only 2 most popular things they will do, one is shopping but buy nothing, the other is eating...base on these 2 popular lifestyle of locals,
either you do transportation or sell food, even sell potong ice cream at Orchard is now buying a terrace house, what are you waiting for??..lols
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Im a grad too, hoping to retire early, planning to takeTDVL working part time.
Is it difficult to find Friday and Saturday night driving only?