Research
Selected research published by the Burning Glass Institute independently or in partnership with other leading workforce innovation and higher education organizations
A Guide to Improving Recruitment, Retention, Advancement and Equity
Our analysis in partnership with the Business Roundtable and Lightcast on how to enhance workforce inclusion via skills-based talent strategies
U.S. companies have traditionally relied on four-year degree requirements as a critical credential, particularly for white collar jobs, and a proxy for job candidates’ qualifications for roles. This practice has excluded many talented Americans, including employees of color, from hiring and promotion and has made it harder for employers to find a sufficient number of skilled employees.
Increasingly, U.S. companies are shifting their hiring and talent management practices to emphasize the value of skills, rather than degrees alone. Taking a more inclusive approach around educational credentials as a job criterion, where possible, can help companies meet their hiring needs and unlock new employment and advancement opportunities for workers from diverse backgrounds.
Shifting Skills, Moving Targets, and Remaking the Workforce
Our analysis of 15 million job postings illuminates the future of work
Discussions about the job market usually focus on jobs created and destroyed. But even in the most tumultuous times, that is not what most workers or most business experience. Jobs do come and go, but even more significantly, jobs change. For the vast majority of workers, their job is much less likely to go away than to evolve into something new…
The Through-the-Looking-Glass Recovery
New, complex dynamics in the U.S. Economy suggest that employment in some industries won’t come back from the pandemic.
New, complex dynamics in the U.S. Economy suggest that employment in some industries won’t come back from the pandemic.
A permanent shake-up of U.S. industries is underway. While the economy sustained massive, near-instantaneous employment loss in the early days of the pandemic, the job market has now returned to 99% of is prior strength after just two years, far faster than the job market recovered from past shocks. But the economy we have returned to usn’t the same as the one we left behind…
HBR: Skills-Based Hiring Is on the Rise
Two decades ago, companies began adding degree requirements to job descriptions, even though the jobs themselves hadn’t changed. After the Great Recession, many organizations began trying to back away from those requirements.
To learn how the effort is going, the authors studied more than 50 million recent job announcements. The bottom line: Many companies are moving away from degree requirements and toward skills-based hiring, especially in middle-skill jobs, which good for both workers and employers. But more work remains to be done.
The Emerging Degree Reset
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 higher skill roles. Based on these trends, we project that an additional 1.4 million jobs could open to workers without college degrees over the next five years.
Dynamos for Diversity
For higher education to live up to its diversity imperative, universities need to go beyond an exclusive focus on enrollment numbers and bring more attention to outcomes – both for existing students and for the broader community of learners they’ve been missing.
HBR: Manage Your Talent Pipeline Like a Supply Chain
In supply-chain management, you get what you plan for. It’s time for companies to get serious about developing a good supply chain for talent. Here are ideas for how to get started.