We all know "education pays" in terms of income but it also pays in employment consistency. Interesting graphs here that make this important point.

It is clear that "education pays" in terms of absolute income people earn over their lifetime---the more you learn the more you earn.

But another benefit of more education is the likely-hood of having gainful employment on a continual basis.  If you lose your job you are more likely to find another one in a relatively short period of time.

This graph from the Census Bureaus American Community Survey illustrates this nicely.

I inserted a RED line at the age of 60 to show the difference between years of work experience a person would have at the various levels of education.

You can see clearly someone with less than a high school diploma fares the worst by far with only about 27 years of work experience on average. Those with a college degree (or more) and those with some college trend together with 40 years of experience.  High school graduates lag by less than 5 years.

Stay in school, kids...

For more support here is a graph from the same American Community Survey that shows median monthly income by education level and years of experience.  I put a RED line at the end of the data lines at 35+ years of experience. Dramatic, is it not?

I repeat. Stay in school, kids!