Editorial

Education plays important part in economic future

Thursday, May 8, 2008

The Gazette's education pages get pretty full this time of year, with scholarships, honors and graduation lists filling the columns.

U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith will speak at Friday's commencement ceremonies at McCook Community College, and Mike Johanns, candidate for U.S. Senate, is speaking this afternoon at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis, testimony to the importance of education (as well as propensity of politicians to take advantage of any opportunity to speak during an election year).

Not long ago, top graduates in accounting, law and financial services could take their pick of job offers, but what awaits this year's college grads?

According to Marisa DiNatala of Moody's Economy.com, manufacturing, plastics, industrial food and agribusiness are good fields to go into, and any business involving engineering and energy is a good place to look for a job.

With the price of gasoline, tourism, particularly domestic travel, is doing well this year as more vacationers stay close to home.

The slowing economy means many companies, in anticipation of hard times ahead, are not filling positions or creating new ones that they would otherwise.

A bright spot for graduates involves demographics, however, with many companies looking to hire new workers over the next 10 years to replace retiring baby boomers. An economic plus for the businesses is the fact they can hire new employees at a lower rate than what the retirees drew.

Regardless of the job outlook for their chosen field, it's a sure thing that graduates crossing the stage at MCC, NCTA or at any other institution of higher learning, has a better chance of earning a decent living than they were before obtaining that education.

As we've said many times before, anyone in the Southwest Nebraska region who does not have education beyond their high school diploma is missing a golden opportunity by not taking advantage of our local colleges.

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