Well- it all sort of depends. But.... Consider that education hasn’t really kept up with the pace of time, we don’t demand more in most fields of study even as things become more complex. On the other end of the spectrum- technology; tools and processes have advanced at staggering pacing and automation has made it so that many complex tasks that once took an expert are now handled for an operator by a machine.
The population has increased and the percent of people with an education has as well- world wide. A “masters degree” is generally a specialization in a particular aspect of a field of study. It does not say a person is overall more skilled but that person possesses a very detailed mastery of a specific subset of information. In a dynamic environment the world only needs so many specialists in many fields. You only need so many specialists to handle the work only they can do and the rest can be given to cheaper and less skilled workers- often 20+ operating under supervision of a single specialist as opposed to 20 specialists.
As a specialist- your job field is by default more narrow if you intend to use your specialty. 90% of most companies are “simple” tasks. A company like Amazon by far has more warehouse workers than executives. Less than 20% of their total employees would likely service systems and machines. Then perhaps 1% or so would design and do other high level specialized tasks. Just rough numbers not real numbers.
Now- a marine biologist in Nebraska will likely have a harder time finding work locally than in Miami, and there are less positions of note for a marine biologist than say, a Dr. of law or medicine, mathematics etc. a theoretical physicist may have less gainful opportunity than an applied materials specialist or aerospace engineer.
Tl:dr- High level specialists aren’t needed as often in the modern age because of automation etc. Factors such as where you are and what you got a masters in will have large impacts on your prospects. Finding a job and finding a job in your field aren’t the same thing. Being unemployed is not always but is often the choice of a
person who sees the jobs available as beneath them.
person who sees the jobs available as beneath them.