The post-pandemic economic recovery is progressing surprisingly quickly. Vaccinations are progressing, Consumer Confidence is rebounding, and jobs are growing. But serious challenges loom for the US economy, among the most important — whether the American workforce will have the needed skills to meet the demands of the postpandemic economy.
The pandemic’s acceleration of trends toward digital transformation and automation has only accelerated the need for aggressive reskilling of the US workforce. While the pandemic’s hardest impact on less educated and low-wage workers underscores that a college degree is an important bedrock for economic success, even those workers who seemingly weathered the storm risk falling behind. Jobs in emerging industries, such as health science and cybersecurity, demand new and advanced skills. Over the next five years, the average job is expected to change 40 percent of its core skill set, while half of all employees will need to reskill.
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