Terry Burton is a retired veteran of Alberta’s oil and heavy construction industry, and a former member of the Alberta Apprenticeship Board.There appears to be a growing disconnect between Western world universities and the marketplace of work. All stakeholders, and there are many, are walking the tightrope of keeping up appearances whilst in an acute state of denial as to the reality unfolding at an alarming rate.For much of the postwar period, a university degree in Canada or the United States (US) functioned as a powerful economic signal. Employers treated it as evidence of discipline, persistence, analytical ability, and readiness for professional life. Today, that signal has weakened dramatically. In a growing number of cases, employers now view many degrees with skepticism or avoid them altogether.This shift reflects a widening disconnect between universities, the labour market, and the expectations of graduates themselves. At the centre of the problem is a persistent mismatch between what students are studying and what the Canadian and American economies actually need.A Credential Inflation ProblemIn both Canada and the United States, higher education has expanded far faster than the creation of high-skill, innovation-driven jobs. Universities have continued to market degrees as pathways to prosperity even as the labour market has become more polarized: strong demand at the technical and specialized end, stagnation or decline in many generalist white-collar roles.As a result, employers increasingly report that many graduates lack essential, job-ready skills. These gaps are not abstract. They include weak writing and business communication, poor numeracy and data literacy, limited technical competence, inadequate project management, low commercial awareness, underdeveloped interpersonal skills, and little understanding of professional norms..Graduates often arrive credentialed but untested — strong in theory, thin in execution. For employers, the degree alone no longer clarifies what a candidate can actually do.STEM Demand, Humanities OversupplyNowhere is the disconnect more visible than in students’ collective avoidance of STEM and applied fields. Across North America, employers face chronic shortages in engineering, software, cybersecurity, data science, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, energy, and skilled trades. These shortages persist despite rising wages and strong long-term demand.At the same time, universities continue to produce large numbers of graduates in fields where labour market absorption is limited. Arts, humanities, and social science programs — while intellectually legitimate — are graduating far more students than the economy can reasonably employ in degree-relevant roles.Statistics Canada data from late 2025 revealed nearly half a million unemployed Canadians holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to roughly 80,000 job vacancies requiring that level of education. In the same period, college diploma holders and skilled trades workers experienced lower unemployment rates.In the US, the picture is similar. Student loan debt now exceeds $1.8 USD trillion, while underemployment among recent graduates remains stubbornly high. Many graduates work in roles that do not require a degree at all, effectively subsidizing credential inflation while absorbing its costs personally..Misaligned University IncentivesUniversities often defend these outcomes by invoking education as a public good rather than a labour market instrument. That argument might carry more weight if tuition had not risen dramatically, if student debt were not systemic, and if institutions were not actively marketing degrees as economic investments.In Canada, provincial funding models reward enrolment volume rather than employment outcomes. In the US, federal student loan availability allows universities to raise tuition with minimal immediate accountability. In both systems, the incentive structure favours low-cost, lecture-based programs over expensive, lab-intensive STEM education.The result is predictable. Universities scale programs that are cheap to deliver and easy to expand, while underinvesting in fields that require infrastructure, industry partnerships, and rigorous skill assessment.The proliferation of niche and novelty degrees — many with unclear or narrow employment pathways — should be understood in this context. These programs may satisfy institutional branding or ideological goals, but they often leave graduates struggling to translate academic credentials into economic value.The Debt Burden and Its ConsequencesGraduates in Canada and the US are not merely disappointed; many are financially constrained. Student debt has become a defining feature of early adulthood for millions..This debt exposure has measurable macroeconomic consequences. Highly indebted graduates are more vulnerable to interest rate increases, reduce discretionary spending when rates rise, delay home ownership, postpone family formation, and avoid entrepreneurial risk. During economic downturns, they are often among the first to experience unemployment or wage stagnation.Importantly, this is not a story of individual irresponsibility. It is the outcome of systems that encouraged borrowing while overstating the economic value of certain credentials and downplaying labour market risk.AI, Automation, and the Vanishing Entry-Level JobCompounding the problem is the changing structure of work itself. Automation and generative AI are eliminating or consolidating many routine cognitive tasks that once served as entry points for graduates.In both Canada and the US, employers now hire fewer entry-level workers and expect higher baseline competence from those they do hire. Graduates without applied skills, internships, co-op experience, or technical fluency find themselves trapped in a familiar paradox: unable to gain experience without employment, and unable to secure employment without experience.Those with technical, healthcare, or trade-based training are better insulated from this shift. Those with purely theoretical degrees are disproportionately exposed..A Necessary ResetNone of this implies that the humanities or social sciences should disappear from Canadian or American universities. It does imply that institutions must be honest with students about outcomes, risks, and alternatives.As recipients of substantial public funding and regulatory privilege, universities should be required to publish an annual, standardized disclosure of the degrees they confer, including the number of Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD credentials issued in each specific major or field. These disclosures should also report the percentage distribution of degrees across major disciplinary categories — such as STEM, humanities, social sciences, and professional fields — and be submitted both to the government and the public. Such reporting would promote institutional accountability, enable informed policy decisions, and provide greater clarity about how universities are shaping the future workforce and intellectual landscape.Additionally, universities should be required to publish clear, program-level data on employment rates, earnings, and debt loads. Governments should link funding and loan eligibility to demonstrable graduate outcomes. Experiential learning — co-ops, internships, apprenticeships — should be the norm rather than the exception.Students, for their part, must balance passion with realism. Interest matters, but so does demand. Education should expand opportunity, not mortgage the future.Until Canada and the US realign higher education with labour market reality, graduates and society will continue to pay the price for degrees that promise much, deliver little, and leave too many navigating adulthood burdened by debt and diminished prospects.Terry Burton is a retired veteran of Alberta’s oil and heavy construction industry, and a former member of the Alberta Apprenticeship Board.
