This report examines factors that are associated with the labor force participation behavior of working-age men and women in the United States with a focus on the connection between labor force participation and human capital skills and educational attainment. The analysis reveals very different patterns of labor force attachment for American men…

Rural America has long been perceived as "left behind" by policies that leave it struggling while benefiting bustling urban cities and suburbs. That narrative holds some truth: rural America has a declining population, along with lower educational attainment and lower workforce participation than urban America. But while rural America…

Vietnam's economy and education system have had remarkable success in recent decades, yet there are concerns about the declining returns to higher education since 2008. We document this decline in returns to higher education and propose four hypotheses to explain it. Analysis of the VLSS/VHLSS and LFS data provides little evidence for three of…

A comprehensive picture of the overall vocational education and training (VET) market combined with an updated profile of the VET workforce is essential to informing policy development and workforce planning to ensure the sector has the capacity to meet the skill development needs of industry in a rapidly changing economy. This report presents…

Recent research describes a gap between the workforce skills employers need and the skills college graduates bring to the workforce. Making strides toward closing the workforce skills gap means that institutions, employers, and students must work together to cultivate a shared understanding of how strategic collaboration and communication are…

Short-term certificate (STC) programs at community colleges represent a longstanding policy priority to align accelerated postsecondary credentials with job opportunities in local labor markets. Despite large investments in developing STCs, little evidence exists about where and when STCs are opened and whether community colleges open new programs…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to test the relationship between degree choice and post-graduate outcomes for students in the United States by describing the relationship between a selected major and post-graduate outcomes including employment sector, salary for women and men. As college costs rise, and enrollments fall for the first…

The Council on Postsecondary Education (Council) is charged with guiding the reform efforts envisioned by state policy leaders in the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997 and is Kentucky's statewide postsecondary and adult education coordinating agency. To gain better insight into economic conditions and workforce trends,…

This yearlong qualitative research project examined the perspectives, experiences, and expertise of academic leaders, program directors, and faculty in tying learning outcomes to workforce skills at a variety of public and private two-year and four-year institutions across the United States. This research centered on students' workforce skills…

The manufacturing workforce has been shaped by decades of industry transformation. Modern manufacturing requires workers with a diverse set of skills to perform functions such as research and development (R&D), product and production design, marketing and sales, and customer support. While workers with a high school diploma or less dominated…

Purpose: The pandemic COVID-19 brought in large challenges globally among the workforce. There were reports of how employee layoffs and pay-cuts were gradually becoming prominent across industries based on media reports. However, there were no attempts to develop a typology of challenges faced by the workforce. Design/methodology/approach: This…

Washington employment projections continue to show strong demand for workers with postsecondary education. Nearly 70 percent of all projected job openings require at least some education beyond high school, with two-thirds requiring midlevel education or higher. As businesses, industries, and workplaces become increasingly complex, employers need…

As the U.S. workforce ages, baby boomers retire, and birth rates decline, the United States is facing an estimated shortfall of 8 million workers between now and 2027. At the same time, the U.S. economy is becoming ever more knowledge-based. Having a marketable postsecondary credential, whether an academic degree or a professional certification or…

A growing segment of the U.S. workforce -- older workers -- face challenges such as a greater chance of being unemployed for a longer period of time than younger workers and skill obsolescence in contemporary societies. In an age of fast-paced economic and technological change, ongoing investment in human capital in the form of skill training…

Background: Nurses provide technical and relational skills that are integral to the care of people with intellectual disability (ID) in Australia. However, little is known about the demographic profile of this section of the nursing workforce. Method: Administration of a survey to nurses whose primary role it is to care for people with ID…