Role of Businesses & Employers

California Businesses and Employers Have a Stake in Ensuring the Preparation of a Highly Educated Workforce

"I believe that since businesses benefit from community colleges, we also have an obligation to help them. An investment in your local community college is a sound investment in the competitiveness of our country and the potential of our citizens. I should know." William Green, CEO of Accenture, a global consulting company with $17 billion in revenue, 130,000 employees, and a graduate of a Boston area two year college.

 

• California ranks 40th among the states in the percentage of high school graduates going directly to college and the number is declining.

• Businesses report they can't find enough qualified workers. By 2020 the nation may face a shortage of 14 million workers with college level skills.

• Jobs requiring higher education are growing faster than overall employment.

• In the near future, 1 in 3 new jobs generated will require an associate degree, bachelor's degree or higher.

• Demand for jobs requiring a college degree will grow by 48%, while jobs not requiring a college degree will grow by 33%.

• Three industries will require the largest number of highly educated workers: technical services, education, and healthcare.

• Three other sectors will face significant economic impacts without highly educated workers: finance, manufacturing and information.

• The increasing demand for highly educated workers combined with the loss of retiring highly educated Baby Boomers is equal to more than 3 million new workers.

• High school dropouts are twice as likely as those who graduate to slip into poverty. In 2001, 4 out of 10 young adult dropouts received some type of government assistance.

• 75% of all high school dropouts in 2004 did not have jobs.

• Nearly 1/3 of all new jobs require at least some college. 7 of the 10 fastest growing job categories call for education beyond high school.

 

Report from the California Business Roundtable and the Campaign for College Opportunity, April 26, 2006

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, "The Challenge Facing our Nation," 2006

 

 

                                              Updated 03/03/11