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  • 2022
  • White Paper

The Emerging Degree Reset: How the Shift to Skills-Based Hiring Holds the Keys to Growing the U.S. Workforce at a Time of Talent Shortage

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Christina Langer, Julia Nitschke, Layla O'Kane, Matthew Sigelman and Bledi Taska
  • Language:English
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Abstract

Employers are resetting degree requirements in a wide range of roles, dropping the requirement for a bachelor’s degree in many middle-skill and even some higher-skill roles. This reverses a trend toward degree inflation in job postings going back to the Great Recession. And while the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated this process, this reset began before the crisis and is likely to continue after it. • Some 46% of middle-skill and 31% of high-skill occupations experienced material degree resets between 2017 and 2019. • Only 27% of the changing occupations could be considered “cyclical resets,” or short-term responses to the pandemic. The majority (63%) appear to be “structural resets” that began before the pandemic, representing a measured and potentially permanent shift in hiring practices. • When employers drop degrees, they become more specific about skills in job postings, spelling out the soft skills that may have been assumed to come with a college education, such as writing, communication, and being detail-oriented. This reset could have major implications for how employers find talent and open up opportunities for the two-thirds of Americans without a college education. Based on these trends, we project that an additional 1.4 million jobs could open to workers without college degrees over the next five years.

Keywords

Skills; Workforce; Talent; Human Resource Management; Selection and Staffing; Competency and Skills; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources

Citation

Fuller, Joseph B., Christina Langer, Julia Nitschke, Layla O'Kane, Matthew Sigelman, and Bledi Taska. "The Emerging Degree Reset: How the Shift to Skills-Based Hiring Holds the Keys to Growing the U.S. Workforce at a Time of Talent Shortage." White Paper, Burning Glass Institute, February 2022.

About The Author

Joseph B. Fuller

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

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    • March 10, 2025
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    How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise

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More from the Authors
  • Governors Reshaping Workforce Development: Turning WIOA Challenges into Workforce Solutions By: Joseph B. Fuller, Kerry McKittrick, Nathalie Gazzaneo, Ariel Higuchi, Justine Gluck, Zoe Butler, Jack Porter and Malena Dailey
  • Navigating Opportunity: Career Information and Mobility in Low-Wage Employment By: Joseph B. Fuller, Kerry McKittrick, Amanda Holloway, Rony Rodriguez Ramirez and Ali Epstein
  • How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise By: Joseph Fuller, Matt Sigelman and Michael Fenlon
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