There can be little argument that the world of work is rapidly changing, accelerated by the technology revolution over the last several decades. As technology has become cheaper and labor more expensive, many industries are turning to technology to replace human labor, which led the reporters of the nonprofit newsroom, The Hechinger Report, to ask one important question:

Do bachelor’s degrees provide students sufficient knowledge and skills to thrive in this new labor market?

To answer that question, they looked at whether technology and human labor at different educational levels are complements or substitutes for each other in certain jobs. Looking at data from 1998 to 2013, they found that technology complements high-education labor (a master’s degree and above), substitutes for low-education labor (high school degree and below), and, surprisingly, also substitutes for middle-education labor (bachelor’s and associate degrees).

The bottom line is that the number of jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree or less is shrinking as those jobs are replaced by technology while the number of jobs requiring a master’s degree or above is expanding with technological advancement.

While all graduate degrees are not the same, a market-tested master’s degree can help professionals fend off technology disruption and stay relevant.

Adapted from “A master’s degree gives students an edge with fast-moving technology” by Oliver Yao, the Hechinger Report, on January 17, 2022. Read the original article.