"We have some new statistics coming out on wage gains for people with different levels of education, and I think they are very amazing," says Walden, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at N.C. State University.

"Since 2000, the only educational category to have increases in the wage rate above inflation is for those workers with advanced college degrees -- degrees like a Ph.D. or a professional degree like a law degree, a medical degree, et cetera.

"High school dropouts lost 5 percent of their real wages, high school grads lost 3 percent, and even, even people with master's degrees lost in real wages," he says. "Between 2000 and 2005, they lost 2 percent. So the education bar may be moving up, meaning that it is like never before ... important to get a college education."