With college graduates being steeped in deeper debt than ever before, it’s not unreasonable for people to be questioning what the true value of a college degree is in this day and age. However, some research into debt and university costs presented by an article in Liberty Street Economics indicates that the value of a bachelor’s degree today is still at approximately the same record-high value it’s been at for the past decade.

The authors of the article, Jaison R. Abel and Richard Deitz, use a statistic called “net present value (NPV)” to describe the dollar value of a bachelor’s degree. While the NPV of a bachelor’s degree has fallen slightly since its peak in 2000, it is still among the highest levels it’s ever been at, and significantly higher than where it was in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s.

Meanwhile, the amount of years needed to recoup the cost of a bachelor’s degree has been on a downward trend since the early 1980s, when it peaked at around 23 years. Today, it takes about ten years for the average graduate to regain the amount of money spent on a college education, slightly up from the low point of eight to nine years hit in 2000 and 2012. This means that despite the challenges of the job market perceived in college graduates today, they’re actually getting back the money they spent on their degree in near-record time with the value of that degree at a near-record high.

These numbers show more reason to believe that things are looking up in financially for recent college graduates who are still experiencing sticker shock over their student loans.

Today we are going to continue to take a closer look at the great points made by Tim Hoch in his article for Thought Catalog, “10 Ways You’re Making Life Harder Than It Has To Be.” We’re focusing on point four: having unrealistic or uncommunicated expectations.

It’s so easy for us to build up expectations in our mind of how others will treat us, whether it’s coworkers, superiors, friends or family members. But building up unrealistic expectations only serves as a good way for us to create scenarios in which we are extremely likely to be let down.

The fact is that people can’t read your mind, and they can’t possibly know what your expectations are unless you communicate them. This isn’t to say that the solution is to vocalize your unrealistic expectations, though better communication of reasonable expectations is always encouraged. Rather, you should attempt to lower your expectations instead. Lower expectations make it much harder for you to be let down.

As Hoch says in the article, “minimize your expectations, maximize your joy.” Developing a more realistic view about what you can expect from other people and how you can share those expectations will make your life a whole lot easier.

It’s time once again for us to take a look at another key point made by Roger Herman in his book Impending Crisis.

When people are on the job hunt, one of the biggest factors they consider when filling out an application is the quality of care that the business provides to its employees. In today’s business world, quality of life issues are more important to employees than ever before, according to Herman. Employees want a safe and healthy environment that makes them feel comfortable, almost like being at home.

This goes beyond the type of salary or benefits that a company provides. People are concerned with the types of working conditions they’ll have around them, the amount of flexibility they have within their position and the kind of recognition they get for a job well done. They want their free time and their families to be valued as well as their work. They want to be able to have open lines of communication with people high up the food chain within the organization.

Simply put, people value a more relaxed and gracious approach to business management. If you can set up your business in a way that provides this level of care, you will find that the quality of your applicants will steadily rise.

According to a new national study performed at Rutgers University, Americans continue to be pessimistic about the state of the economy and its future after the recession.

In fact, that pessimism seems to have increased over the past five years. In 2009, approximately 50 percent of Americans believed that the impact of the recession would be permanent. In this most recent study, that number rose to around 70 percent. Additionally, just one in six Americans believe that the next generation will have more job opportunities than they did, whereas four in 10 held that view just five years ago. Only one in three people believe the economy has improved within the last year.

Finally, there also appears to be pessimism surrounding the state of the federal government. Four in five Americans have either little or no confidence that the federal government will make any sort of progress on the most important problems facing the nation within the next year.

Clearly, the nation appears to be more cynical than it has been in decades in regard to the state of the economy and the federal government. However, there is some reason for positivity, despite these numbers. Within the last few years, there have been sustained levels of job growth, and unemployment rates have shrank significantly since the end of the recession. The most recently published national unemployment numbers at 5.8% seem to indicate that the economy is improving, despite the opinions of the people surveyed in this study.

As the numbers continue to improve, it stands to reason that public opinion will eventually follow.

Mike Duke was the fourth CEO of Walmart, serving from 2009 to 2013. When you lead a company of such a massive scope, it’s extremely important that you understand how to be an effective leader. Mr. Duke regularly speaks with other business owners about leadership tactics, and given his standing in the business world, his advice is very relevant for anyone who manages a business.

In order of increasing importance, Mr. Duke said that leadership is all about the following:

• Being an agent of change. Sam Walton was not afraid of change – it’s how he revolutionized the retail industry. Walton’s early stores were failures, but he learned through these failures to understand what new methods of building a retail empire would work. This allowed him to create the Supercenter.
• The people. As CEO, David Glass told Lee Scott that although he was doing a great job leading Logistics, he couldn’t be promoted without a successor. Scott invested in recruitment and development, which led to the hiring of Mr. Duke. 90 days later, Glass called and asked Mr. Duke to lead Logistics. This shows the importance of not only hiring good people, but mentoring them and invest in growing them as people and employees.
• Trust. Mr. Duke was impacted by a visit from a Walmart driver during which a driver criticized a manager for having no integrity and mentioned in incident of disrespect on the manager’s part. That incident had occurred two years previously. To Duke, this showed how a single misstep without an apology and a willingness to accept the consequences of one’s actions can truly damage employee trust.

These three facets of leadership helped Mr. Duke successfully manage one of the world’s largest companies, and they’re applicable for any size business.

Several weeks back we began looking at some of the best points from the book “Impending Crisis” by Robert Herman. Today we’re going to continue on and look at Mr. Herman’s next point: the importance of your company’s culture.

While there are some people who would say that the culture of a company is something that’s subjective and hard to define. The fact is that job candidates often refer to the culture of an organization as being one of the major factors in their decision to seek employment elsewhere. This means that for organizations looking to bring in the best possible employers to their team, the creation of a positive, affirming company culture should be among its top priorities.

What exactly are candidates looking for when it comes to organizational culture? Some examples include:

• A company that has high values and a good moral compass
• A company that has high standards of quality and customer service
• A company with traditions, and a rich organizational history
• A company that people simply enjoy working for
• A company where team members seem to get along and work well aside each other

If you’re interested in reading more about company culture and its importance to prospective candidates, I highly suggest reading “Impending Crisis”.

I often get asked about the state of the job market. Despite the economic downturn from a few years ago, the job market is actually very healthy.  According to a new article by Mark Anderson of Execunet, it appears that there is certainly cause for confidence in the job market right now, and for the next six months as well.

Here are some of the US Bureau of Labor statistics reported by Anderson in the article:

• Average jobs added per month in the US economy are up by 20 percent from 2013
• Recruiter confidence levels are above 50 percent for the first time since 2011, and only nine percent of recruiters believe that the job market will not improve in the next six months
• One in four companies will add new executive-level positions in the next six months, up from one in eight in 2011, the third month in a row that executive recruiters have indicated these expectations
• The amount of companies searching for top executive candidates is up by 25 percent over 2013

All of this is definitely good news for people who are either looking to make a change in the career or who are currently unemployed. Keep in mind that recruiter confidence does not necessarily translate to more jobs, but the fact that recruiters are increasingly confident in the market is certainly cause for positivity.

For more information, read the full article linked above and check with the US Bureau of Labor for constantly updated statistics about the US economy and job market.