None of this, however, has stopped the nation’s leading news outlets from regularly publishing terrifying stories about college graduates unable to find decent work, particularly during economic downtimes when unemployment and insecurity were on the rise. The formula has been carefully refined over the years: Start with a grim headline, like “Grimly, Graduates are Finding Few Jobs.” (Times, 1991). Build the lede around a recent college graduate in the most demeaning possible profession (janitor, meter maid, file clerk) and living circumstances (on food stamps, eating Ramen noodles, moved back home with parents.) Pull back to a broader thesis, like “The payoff from a bachelor’s degree is beginning to falter.” (Times, 2005). Cite an expert asserting that this is no passing trend, e.g. “ ‘We are going to be turning out about 200,000 to 300,000 too many college graduates a year in the ‘80s,’ said Ronald E. Kutscher, Associate Commissioner at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” (Times, 1983). Finish with a rueful quote from the recent college graduate. “When I have to put my hands into trash soaked with urine or vomit, I say ‘What am I doing here? This job is the bottom. Did I go to college to do this?’ ” (Post, 1981).

The media get the story wrong every time for a number of reasons. People naturally tend to project current trends into the future, missing the up-and-down nature of the business cycle. Editors know that “Thing-you-thought-was-true-isn’t-actually-true” stories boost circulation. The college graduates who read newspapers like the Post and Times like to see their personal insecurities dramatized as national trends of great significance.

More importantly, the press misunderstands how the education needs of the modern economy have been augmented by technology and globalization. Many jobs involving simple, repetitive tasks have been rendered obsolete by machines. Employers will pay people less money, or no money at all, to perform them. The jobs that remain, however, require increasingly sophisticated skills. A steel mill that once employed 20 low-skill laborers per unit of production may now employ one person manipulating complex equipment. Typists barely exist any more, but scientists can communicate with colleagues worldwide via email, download documents from archives instantaneously, and crunch gigabytes of data on cheap laptop computers. Economists call this “skill-biased technology change.”

Under this scenario, more productive workers earn more, on average. And the workers who come to the labor market able to take advantage of complex technologies and manipulate flows of information are disproportionately college graduates. That’s why the labor market continues to pay a premium for degrees. The great recession of 2008 threw people from all walks of life out of work. But college graduates were most likely to have jobs when the economic crisis began and were least likely to lose them in the financial storm. Even as unemployment remains stubbornly high, college graduates are the only members of the labor force whose employment rate rose during the first five months of this year.