Education and Workforce Readiness
Workforce Education Attainment
In October of 2023, the Oklahoma Senate published an interim study exploring the barriers preventing Oklahoma workers from joining or returning to the job market. The need for further education was among these barriers and the study highlighted the following statistics: 1. In 2023, 56% of job postings from the top employers in the state required an associate degree or higher. 2.By 2027, 70% of jobs will require postsecondary education or training beyond high school. 3. By 2030, more than half of Oklahoma’s 100 critical occupations will require an associate degree or higher. Median wages for positions requiring postsecondary education or higher were $30,400 higher than positions only requiring a high school diploma. 4. In addition, the study highlighted that labor force participation rates tend to increase with higher levels of educational attainment. The study showed a 56.6% participation rate for high school graduates and 70.8% for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher. The 2023 Oklahoma Workforce Briefing breaks down education attainment levels for individuals 25 years and older in Oklahoma: high school graduates were the largest group at 30.6% followed by 22.1% reporting some college, 18.6% with a bachelor's degree, and 9.9% with a graduate or professional degree. When comparing changes in educational attainment from 2017-2022, the amount of people in the population with less than a high school diploma decreased (20.1%), while high school graduates increased (1.2%). There was also a decrease in the ‘some college’ category (-2.8%) and an increase in associate’s (7.2%), bachelor’s (13.3%), and graduate degrees (18%). These positive trends are in line with an increased focus on high school graduation rates and postsecondary degree attainment in the state. The briefing also conducted an educational attainment mismatch analysis, which looks at typical education requirements for job demand in the state compared to the population’s educational attainment. The analysis shows that there is more demand for jobs that do not require formal education or high school diplomas than there are people in that category. When it comes to jobs requiring some college, an associate’s degree or a graduate degree, there are more people in the population than what is required. However, for jobs requiring a bachelor's degree, there are fewer people in that category than what is needed. This analysis could suggest that due to the amount of jobs that do not require formal or postsecondary education, individuals may experience underemployment, meaning the work does not make full use of their skills and abilities. With increases in postsecondary education attainment, workers may demand more complex and higher quality jobs.
WorkTrends 2024
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