"Commentary"-Upping Education
Thursday, February 15, 2007SUSIE GHARIB: We've spent this week focusing on America's changing demographics. Tonight's commentator says there's a key statistic that needs to change. Here's Robert Morison, director of research at the Concours Group and co- author "Workforce Crisis."
ROBERT MORISON, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, THE CONCOURS GROUP: This week's NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT series on "Changing Demographics" reminds me that one variable isn't changing fast enough: the educational attainment of the American workforce. Yes, we are among the most educated nations. But we also have a very high tech, information-based economy and education and training aren't keeping pace with the requirements of today's jobs. Aggregate demand for less skilled labor is almost flat.
The net additions to the job mix are almost all on the skilled side. About two-thirds of these new jobs call for a college degree, the rest for extensive, often technical, training. But only about 35 percent of Americans earn college degrees and only 30 percent earn them by age 30. In five years, the workforce is projected to be over 6 million degree holders short, with the biggest gaps in engineering disciplines. Meanwhile, many of these jobs are portable, and there are plenty of educated people around the world happy to fill them.
The shortfall isn't just in higher education. Virtually all jobs these days call for increasing analytical, technical, and communication skills, at levels that too many high school graduates lack. What to do? Invest seriously in public education, but that does employers little good in the short term. Employers who are unable or disinclined to outsource work elsewhere have to be in the education business themselves as never before, all the way from remedial skills training to big incentives for employees to pursue undergrad and graduate education. I'm Robert Morison.
