Question about the so-called "paper ceiling" in the job market...

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

I thought about posting this in Political Debate or US General Discussion, but I'll go with this one.

In case anyone doesn't know, the "paper ceiling" refers to jobs requiring a bachelors degree or higher thus closing them off to applicants who don't have the titular piece of paper saying they graduated college. Furthermore, the paper ceiling usually refers to jobs having these requirements even though they're really not necessary. A high school grad could do them just as well.

So here's my question: if this is really a problem, why are millions of people WITH degrees working in jobs that don't require them? Why are they not snatching up the "paper ceiling" jobs?

[Yelnoc]

The two issues are related conceptually. There is a huge oversupply of people with college degrees. Thus, to simplify their hiring process, a lot of companies require college degrees when they are not necessary in order to weed out applicants. For example, I just left a miserable sales job which required no skills other than English fluency and mercenary sensibilities, stuff a high school drop out might possess. But they added a bachelor's degree requirement for exactly that reason. So that's part A.

Meanwhile, as you point out, there are a bunch of college graduates working jobs which do not require them. That was me at that miserable sales job before they implemented a college degree requirement in their new hiring. This situation exists because, again, there is a huge over supply of college graduates, so some of them end up in call centers, restaurants, etc.

[Del Tachi]

Yelnoc really answered it succinctly.  There's an oversupply of college degrees relative to positions truly requiring them.