Maine’s blue collar workers have college debt too — and welcome the relief

MECEP policy analyst James Myall broke down different categories of workers by analyzing the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances and found they all to varying degrees carry debt.

About 33% of managerial and professional households in the U.S. have student debt; 25% of families in sales or the service industry have loans; and 21% of those employed in production, repair and agricultural industries are in debt.

“I think you could assume that the third group broadly correlates with ‘blue collar’ families and say that one in five blue collar households has student debt,” Myall said.

Click here to read the full story, first published September 2, 2022 in Beacon.