Who can fix the ‘middle-skills’ gap

Three and a half years after the Great Recession officially ended, unemployment in the United States remains stubbornly high. Yet many employers still struggle to fill certain types of vacancies, especially for so-called middle-skills jobs—in computer technology, nursing, high-skill manufacturing, and other fields—that require postsecondary technical education and training and, in some cases, college math courses or degrees. Currently in the U.S. about 69 million people work in middle-skills jobs, representing roughly 48% of the labor force.