Has complementarity between employer-sponsored training and education in the US changed during the 2000s?

The study reveals that the positive correlation between formal education and job training (complementarity) has weakened during the 2000s. Using U.S. Census Bureau data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the study finds that although workers in all categories of educational attainment felt the decline, the effects were strongest among workers in the middle of the educational spectrum. Decomposition analysis indicates that workers’ education profiles in 2009 were more conducive to training than in 2001, which implies that policies focusing on individual characteristics to elicit additional job training will likely not be effective.