Report Predicts Huge Gap in Educated Workers

By CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE

Published: June 24, 2012, The New York Times

Report predicts shortage of college-educated workers

By 2020, there will be about 38 million to 40 million too few college and university graduates to satisfy the demands of the global labor market, a report issued this month has found.

At the same time, there will be a surplus of up to 95 million low-skill workers globally, according to the study, conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute.

The report bases its estimates on the projection of a global work force of 3.5 billion by the year 2020, compared with 2.9 billion today.

“Unemployment for less skilled workers is currently running two to three times that of those skilled workers with university or post-graduate degrees,” said Richard Dobbs, one of the authors of the report.

China will have to increase its educated work force in order to fulfill its need for 23 million high-skill workers by 2020, the report said. The report suggested that the shortage of high-skill workers could be avoided by doubling the rate of post-secondary education attainment, retraining midcareer workers and encouraging the migration of educated workers. — CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE

Arts graduates are content with their jobs, study finds

Despite the old stereotype about arts majors, Americans and Canadians with arts degrees are by and large employed and happy with their work, according to a new report released last week by the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project at Indiana University.

The report, titled “A Diverse Palette,” considered degrees in performance, design, architecture, creative writing, music composition, choreography, film, illustration and fine art. It found that 87 percent of arts alumni who are working are content with their jobs, whether or not they work as artists, and that 82 percent of respondents felt they brought creativity to their jobs.

Among master’s graduates in the arts, 86 percent have either worked or are working as professional artists, compared with 71 percent of those holding bachelor’s degrees in the arts.

Many arts graduates became involved in education: 57 percent of arts graduates have taught at some point in their career, and 27 percent are doing so currently, the report said.

The specific discipline played an important role in employability, the study suggested. For example, 82 percent of those with a dance degree said they had worked or were working as an artist. That was only true of 30 percent with art history degrees. Many arts graduates became involved in education: 57 percent of arts graduates have taught at some point in their career, and 27 percent are doing so currently, the report found.

The project covered 36,000 arts alumni from the United Sates and Canada. — CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE