This year’s job market has been bleak, to say the least. Layoffs hit the highest level in 14 years; job openings are barely budging; and quits figures are plummeting. It’s no wonder people feel stuck and discouraged—especially as many candidates have been on the job hunt for a year.
But some mid-career professionals are working with the cards they’ve been dealt by going back to school. Many are turning to data analytics, cybersecurity, AI-focused courses, health care, MBA programs, or trade certifications for an “immediate impact on their careers,” Metaintro CEO Lacey Kaelani told Fortune.
Metaintro is a job-search engine with 2 million active users that runs on open-source data, processing more than 600 million jobs in real time.
“We absolutely see this trend [of adults going back to school] accelerating,” Kaelani said. “In combination with layoffs over the recent years plus the rise of required AI skills, experience is no longer enough.”
Kelsey Szamet, an employment attorney with Kingsley Szamet Employment Lawyers, said she’s noticed people over the age of 40 going back to grad school or earning certifications.
While it’s not necessarily a completely new phenomenon, it’s becoming more frequent now that the job market is the pits.
Still, Szamet sees “very consistent” reasons for people considering higher education at a later stage in life. Some believe they’ve “plateaued” in their career, and education is the only option. Others have been affected by layoffs, and there are some “who have simply become burned out with work and want a meaningful profession,” she told Fortune.
“Then, too, come life circumstances. Some people have fewer responsibilities, better financial security, or a sense they will never make a change if they put it off now,” she said, adding she’s seeing more people pivot out of “dying industries,” those whose salaries have stagnated, or those who have job-security fears.
According to Hanover Research, the top master’s degrees on the rise include artificial intelligence, mechatronics, robotics, automation engineering, research methodology, quantitative methods, as well as construction engineering technology.
The cost of going back to school
Sometimes going back to school can also just feel like delaying the inevitable: student loans and other living costs.
While grad school can certainly offer the opportunity to level-up your career once you’ve completed a program, it comes with financial and personal sacrifices, like time. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, one year of grad school, on average, costs about $43,000 in tuition. That’s nearly 70% of the average salary in the U.S.
“Going to school can be very beneficial, but it can be very costly too,” Szamet said. And when people are older and going back to school, they should consider “the cost of education and how stressful it can be to juggle work and family responsibilities with education.” Overall, “one ought to assess if it will be a good investment,” she added.
That’s why it’s important to do your homework. Some degree programs have a better return on investment than others. According to an ROI analysis by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, the median master’s degree increases lifetime earnings by $83,000, but some master’s degrees are worth more than $1 million. Computer science, engineering, and nursing are some of the highest-ROI master’s programs, with average ROIs of about $500,000, according to the foundation’s analysis.
Still, 40% of master’s degrees actually “have no net financial value at all,” according to the report.
“In today’s job market, going back to school only works when it’s strategic and targeted [like a] specific technical certification in a high-demand field, but fails when it’s vague,” Kaelani emphasized. “It’s no longer ‘more education equals a better job.’”
