More than 70% of 2,000 employers recently surveyed by ZipRecruiter said they now practice “skills-based hiring” – a method that prioritizes skills over certificates and degrees.
This year alone, the share of job postings listing a bachelor’s degree as a requirement fell 10%, said the site. On the other hand, the shares of job postings offering candidates training and tuition assistance have spiked up by 31% and 24%, respectively.
According to ZipRecruiter, these figures are part of a trend steering away from college degrees as basic requirements for getting a job. Its survey results were also announced just after the National Student Clearing House released data about changing college enrollment trends.
Per that report, overall undergrad enrollment dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though it grew for the first time since the pandemic this fall, freshmen enrollment declined by 3.6%.
Students are also continuing “to gravitate towards shorter-term credentials, with enrollments in undergraduate certificate programs jumping 9.9%” said he clearinghouse. Enrollment among white students in undergraduate and graduate programs continued to decline. Black, Latinx, and Asian students accounted for most of the enrollment growth this year.
Lumina’s recent “Stronger Nation” report indicates that post-high school educational attainment of Americans ages 25 to 64 has increased by 16 percentage points since 2009 to 53.7 in 2021. However, the group said that’s “not enough to reach 60% by 2025.
ZipRecuiter said 23% of employers said they’ve been prevented from filling a vacancy in the last six months by a lack of candidates with the required education and training.
“It is unclear whether this shift towards ‘skills-based hiring’ – an approach that prioritizes competencies over traditional credentials – is a response to the post-pandemic decline in college and community college enrollment; declining in enrollment in certain fields, such as finance and accounting; rising concern about college affordability; rising skepticism about the value of a degree amid grade inflation and generative AI; the increased availability of cheaper online alternatives; or increased commitment to expanding workforce diversity,” said ZipRecruiter.
It said that both major companies and state governments announced this year that they would drop degree requirements.
Business Insider reported that IBM, Accenture, Okta, Dell, Bank of America, Google and Delta Airlines were among the businesses rethinking their degree requirements. Earlier this year, the National Governors Association also said that several states are prioritizing skills-based hiring.
“Employers are resetting degree requirements in a wide range of roles, dropping the requirement for a bachelor’s degree in many middle-skill and even some higherskill roles. This reverses a trend toward degree inflation in job postings going back to the Great Recession. And while the COIVID-19 pandemic accelerated this process, this reset began before the crisis and is likely to continue after it,” said a report from The Burningglass Institute.
While 72% of employers surveyed by ZipRecruiter said they are prioritizing skills-based hiring, 45% said they had dispensed with degree requirements for some roles in just the past year.
“Small and medium-sized businesses, those most likely to be experiencing hiring challenges, were more likely than major enterprises to have dropped degree requirements (47% vs. 35%) and to have adopted the skills-based approach (73% vs. 67%),” said the job board site. To assess skills, 43% of employers surveyed by ZipRectuiter said they are using online skills assessment tools.
Enrollment may be dropping in part due to the student loan crisis, which has saddled people from multiple generations with debt long after they leave school. President Joe Biden has been trying to alleviate this debt burden in multiple ways, including $9 billion in forgiveness announced this October.
ZipRecruiter said that employers are also investing in workforce development by subsidizing degrees as well as by offering student loan repayment, tuition assistance and alternative pathways such as employee training.
“Employers broadly perceive these investments to have positive impacts on recruitment and retention,” said the site.