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Help Wanted

Projecting Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018

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Help Wanted: Projecting Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018 shows where the jobs will be, by education level, occupation and industry through 2018, and how postsecondary education is increasingly essential to middle class earnings.

Key Findings

1

America is slowly coming out of the Recession of 2007โ€”only to find itself on a collision course with the future: not enough Americans are completing college.
2

By 2018, we will need 22 million new workers with college degreesโ€”but will fall short of that number by at least 3 million postsecondary degrees.
3

At a time when every job is precious, this shortfall will mean lost economic opportunity for millions of American workers.
4

About 90 percent of the jobs in four of the five fastest growing occupational clusters require postsecondary education: Healthcare Professional and Technical Occupations, STEM Occupations, Community Services and Arts Occupations and Education Occupations.

Interactive Tool

States Online College Job Market: Ranking the States

  • Jobs requiring postsecondary educationin 2018
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Resources

Our report forecasts that by 2018, 63 percent of all jobs will require at least some postsecondary education. Employers will need 22 million new workers with postsecondary degreesโ€“ and the report shows that we will fall short by three million workers without a dramatic change in course. This translates into a deficit of 300,000 college graduates every year between now and 2018.

For more information on the Centerโ€™s methodology, check out our technical report.

These eBooks were made possible by the Lumina Foundation.

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