America’s Skills Crisis: Why U.S. Workers Are Falling Behind

In a sobering new assessment of job readiness, American workers are falling behind their peers in other developed nations when it comes to essential skills like reading a thermometer, planning a trip, and solving basic math problems. Douglas Belkin of The Wall Street Journal reports on the latest findings from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, which tests real-world problem-solving and numeracy across 31 industrialized nations.

While America’s top-performing workers continue to excel, a growing portion of the workforce struggles with fundamental skills. The number of U.S. adults whose math abilities are below an elementary-school level has risen to 34%, up from 29% in 2017. The U.S. ranked 24th in numeracy, 15th in adaptive problem solving, and 14th in literacy, falling behind countries like Finland, Japan, and Denmark.

Key Takeaways:

📉 Declining Competency: More American workers struggle with fractions, spatial reasoning, and information synthesis than in past years.
🔍 Widening Skill Gap: Employers face challenges in finding workers with basic critical thinking abilities.
💡 Pandemic Fallout: Learning losses from COVID-19 exacerbated long-standing skill deficits.
📊 Bright Spot: The most skilled American workers still perform at high levels, but they are a small minority.

"There’s a dwindling middle in the United States in terms of skills," said Peggy Carr, commissioner at the Department of Education. As screen time rises and reading habits decline, the gap in essential skills may continue to grow.

How Can the U.S. Reverse This Trend?

The findings raise serious concerns about workforce readiness and economic competitiveness. What steps should policymakers, educators, and employers take to bridge the skills gap? Share your thoughts!

📖 Read the full article here: WSJ