Skip to footer

A big dive into the talent pool

The pandemic’s churn of the job market has revealed how much workers want to learn new skills. Employers are responding.

|
Reuters
Sandra Presley attends a job fair for restaurant and hotel workers in Torrance, California,
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

As the pandemic eases in the United States, many employers are scrambling to find workers. In April, a record number of Americans quit their jobs. Worldwide, 40% of employees are ready to resign, according to Microsoft Research. Many seek a better work-life balance or simply more pay. But amid this workplace churn, companies are also recognizing what already exists in their current employees: an eagerness and potential to learn new skills in order to create new opportunities.

A survey in May by Prudential Financial found nearly half of American workers say the pandemic has caused them to reevaluate their skill sets. About 1 in 5 have put a greater priority on pursuing education or learning a new skill. Of those that plan to leave their jobs, 6 in 10 have sought training on their own since the start of the pandemic.

These numbers reflect a mass retooling of the capabilities of Americans. Companies such as JPMorgan Chase and Walmart have responded by offering new training that helps employees do their jobs better (“upskilling”) or learn a new field of skills (“reskilling”). In May, for example, Levi Strauss & Co. offered workers an eight-week course in digital skills to help the clothing giant adjust to a rapid increase in customers buying online. 

Overall, more than two-thirds of U.S. companies began last year to invest in reskilling or upskilling to deal with the effects of the pandemic, according to a survey by TalentLMS, a company that offers online training. One reason, according to the consulting firm McKinsey, is that it can cost far more to recruit a new employee compared with the cost of reskilling an internal employee.

Employers also seem less impressed by a job applicant’s formal education. In the past year, LinkedIn has recorded a 21% rise in U.S. job postings that promote a person’s skills instead of their qualifications. And the number of job openings that don’t require a degree rose by nearly 40%.

Even before the pandemic, a survey by the World Economic Forum found the pace of change in industries will require more than half of employees to acquire new skills by 2025. Two of the top essential skills, according to the survey, are active learning and innovative thinking. The world may already be well on its way to meet the 2025 target.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to A big dive into the talent pool
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2021/0630/A-big-dive-into-the-talent-pool
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe