For many employers in recent decades, adding college degree requirements seemed an efficient filter. More proxy than direct measure, degrees were perceived as indicators of persistence, of foundational skill, and of general capability. For hiring managers who themselves had traveled that cursus honorem, it seemed only natural to value the implied endorsement of college admissions officers and the presumed rigor of the college experience as an effective way of separating the wheat from the chaff.

Shortages have a way of inciting challenges to tired assumptions. In the tight labor market that emerged leading up to the pandemic and that returned during the recovery, hiring has become a key operational challenge, causing employers to reevaluate their requirements. In the face of these pressures, it has become increasingly difficult to justify a filter that summarily disqualifies the roughly two-thirds of Americans (62 percent) who lack a degree. At the same time, a growing focus on equity commitments has caused employers to question practices that likely contributed to suppressing broader representation.

Amidst this backdrop, the Skills-Based Hiring movement has gained momentum, as more and more employers committed to stripping degree requirements from their postings, replacing the proxy of a college degree with actual evaluations of candidate skill. An initial flurry of high-profile pronouncements by private-sector and government employers alike has become a blizzard. But do these proclamations result in a real increase in access for workers?

The bachelor’s degree is facing an identity crisis.

In the last year and a half, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Utah have stopped requiring a four-year degree for most jobs in their state governments. The private sector, too, has moved toward skill-based hiring, with Delta, General Motors, Google, Apple, and IBM, among others, dropping the B.A. prerequisite for many positions. Even the federal government is urging its agencies to rely on job-seekers’ skills rather than the sheepskin to fill vacancies.

As we show in this paper, the B.A. remains a valuable commodity in the job market. But colleges and universities can no longer coast on the historical value of the four-year degree to enroll students going forward. The onus is on institutions to make the B.A. more valuable in a marketplace where it faces competition from microcredentials, industry-based certificates, and increasingly well-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree.