Addressing America’s reskilling challenge
Renewed economic growth, a booming job market, and the evolving nature of work are transforming the face of the labor market, resulting in changes in the skill needs of American employers, as well as new and different opportunities for American workers. In the United States, investment in skill development is largely frontloaded” during the first 25 years of life. After that public contributions to formal education are substantially smaller and employer training represents the most sizable investment in further developing the skills of the American workforce. Restrictions on the use of Federal funds which may have been appropriate when specific programs were designed to address the labor market challenges of another era may not be optimal for the future reskilling challenges especially those linked to trade and technological change. Additionally there is an information gap between employers workers and educational institutions. While employers presumably know which skills they value in an employee workers themselves and and their response lags behind the changing demand. Lacking incisive dataeducational institutions have less up-to-date knowledge