Study and employment

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I really don't know where to post this - it's not highschool or college, it's not jobs just in specific, it's not strictly general autism related, and it's not just mature adults' opinions I'm interested in, and the philosophy forum is just full of American politics - ugh.
So mod me of you choose.
But I'm in somewhat of a conundrum when it comes to study and employment.
Jobs are scarce, and there is an inflationary effect going on with tertiary education - in some fields where I am interested in working, I have literally been told you need a PhD for an entrance level job. I was similarly told you had to have tertiary education to work at an animal shelter - literally poop scooping - that would cost you $600 and several months.
I am trying to get back into the workforce. I've accepted that I need to retrain and am currently working on that on several fronts. But the question of whether or not I'm going to get a job out of the training is pertinent in mind, and indeed, when told things like I won't get work or I'll need a PhD of 8+ years commitment and 90K in order to qualify, even if I am interested in the area and would love to work in it some day, I discount it from my consideration. Because it won't get you jobs.
Education isn't cheap. And even those who do decide to pursue the PhD, unless their parents are wealthy and cover all their living costs until they're in their late 30's, they'll still need to work to support themselves.
My conundrum though - I have had this mentality of just qualify for this job because it will guarantee you work that is objectively worthwhile, and have even wasted time and money on university in this frame of mind, and it's a disaster. I've hated the job, because it wasn't something I was passionate about, just something I thought had a high likelihood of finding employment at the end of.
I wonder if you're better off studying the subject you love just for its own sake, even if education is going to cost you money and you'll probably never find a job with it. Discount will-this-get-me-a-job mentality from the consideration and just think about what you're interested in.
But then again, some of the tertiary education I have done had an awful lot of "filler" in it unrelated to the core subject, and in the end, I could probably have learned more about the subject studying it myself whether online, or via textbooks etc, for free, than wasting time and money on education. If you're not going to get jobs in the field anyway, why do you need the diploma?
What is the education system doing to itself with this inflation? Discouraging people from going into technical jobs, until no one is qualified in them? What does that do to the sciences, to medicine, to engineering?
I once trained in a job that was screaming for people because it had done exactly this - made it so difficult to get into that they ran out of qualified employees.
I'm probably ranting. But it is submission times again for some universities and it's daunting enough thinking about this again as an adult when I'm likely to be inundated by school leavers (I may look 17, but I ain't) but also wondering if I'm making the right decisions based solely on the likelihood of employment.
Thoughts?