The NSW Universities Admissions Centre reports non-year 12 applications are down, again – 20 per cent down on the 2012 figure. Yes, more people apply direct to university but the state of the economy might have more to do with it. Yesterday the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported trend unemployment is 5.2 per cent, the lowest since 2012. In NSW annual growth in trend employment is 3.4 per cent.  Good-o, for now. But the idea that studying is what you do only when you can’t get a job is a bad-one – which will become clear as jobs for low-skilled workers disappear.