Sure enough, as soon as I point out how engineering and other college majors mean higher salaries, the Wall Street Journal tries to undercut me:

College-educated workers are more plentiful, more commoditized and more subject to the downsizings that used to be the purview of blue-collar workers only. What employers want from workers nowadays is more narrow, more abstract and less easily learned in college. …

A variety of economic forces are at work here. Globalization and technology have altered the types of skills that earn workers a premium wage; in many cases, those skills aren’t learned in college classrooms. And compared with previous generations, today’s college graduates are far more likely to be competing against educated immigrants and educated workers employed overseas.

However, lest anyone think college is now for chumps, WSJ points out:

To be sure, the average American with a college diploma still earns about 75% more than a worker with a high-school diploma and is less likely to be unemployed.  

WSJ singles out three professions, all finance-related and generally requiring education beyond a BS, as having seen unusual growth:

Indeed, salaries have seen extraordinary growth among a small number of highly paid individuals in the financial sector — such as fund management, investment banking and corporate law — which, until the credit crisis hit a year ago, had benefited both from the buoyant financial environment and the globalization of finance, in which the U.S. remains a leader.