We have been talking about this for sometime. Good to see it in the WSJ.
Google, Delta Air Lines and IBM have reduced requirements for some positions


The tight labor market is prompting more employers to eliminate one of the biggest requirements for many higher-paying jobs: the need for a college degree.

Companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Delta Air Lines Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. have reduced educational requirements for certain positions and shifted hiring to focus more on skills and experience. Maryland this year cut college-degree requirements for many state jobs—leading to a surge in hiring—and incoming Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro campaigned on a similar initiative.

U.S. job postings requiring at least a bachelor’s degree were 41% in November, down from 46% at the start of 2019 ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an analysis by the Burning Glass Institute, a think tank that studies the future of work. Degree requirements dropped even more early in the pandemic. They have grown since then but remain below prepandemic levels.

The shift comes as demand for workers remains high and unemployment is low. Job postings far outpace the number of unemployed people looking for work—10.7 million openings in September compared with 5.8 million unemployed—creating unusually stiff competition for workers.



The persistently tight labor market has accelerated the trend that builds on a debate about the benefits and drawbacks of encouraging more people to attend four-year colleges and as organizations try to address racial disparities in the workplace.

Some occupations have universal degree requirements, such as doctors and engineers, while others typically have no higher education requirements, such as retail workers. There is a middle ground, such as tech positions, that have varying degree requirements depending on the industry, company and strength of the labor market and economy.

Lucy Mathis won a scholarship to attend a women in computer science conference. There, she learned about an IT internship at Google and eventually dropped out of her computer science undergraduate program to work at the company full time. The 28-year-old now makes a six-figure sum as a systems specialist.

“I found out I had a knack for IT,” she said. “I’m not good at academics. It’s not for me.”

More than 100,000 people in the U.S. have completed Google’s online college-alternative program that offers training in fast-growing fields such as digital marketing and project management, the company said. It and 150 other companies are now using the program to hire entry-level workers.


‘I’m not good at academics. It’s not for me,’ said Lucy Mathis, who discontinued her undergraduate studies to enter the workforce.
PHOTO: CHET STRANGE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The majority of its U.S. roles at IBM no longer require a four-year degree after the company conducted a review of hiring practices, IBM spokeswoman Ashley Bright said.

Delta eased its educational requirements for pilots at the start of this year, saying a four-year college degree was preferred but no longer required of job applicants.

Walmart Inc., the country’s largest private employer, said it values skills and knowledge gained through work experience and that 75% of its U.S. salaried store management started their careers in hourly jobs.

“We don’t require degrees for most of our jobs in the field and increasingly in the home office as well,” Kathleen McLaughlin, Walmart executive vice president, said at an online event this fall. The company’s goal is to shift the “focus from the way someone got their skills, which is the degree, to what skills do they have.”

A four-year college degree holder has more lifetime earnings than one without. The lifetime earnings of a worker with a high-school diploma is $1.6 million while that of a bachelor’s degree holder is $2.8 million, according to a 2021 report by the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University.

But many people don’t finish college and are left with mountains of debt—more than 43 million people in the U.S. hold a total of $1.6 trillion in student-loan debt. While a college degree can provide specific workplace skills, workers can gain the skills needed for many jobs without a four-year degree.

Black and Hispanic people are less likely to have a college degree compared with white and Asian people, according to the Commerce Department. Men are less likely than women.


Under Gov. Larry Hogan, Maryland this year cut college-degree requirements for many state jobs, leading to a surge in hiring.
PHOTO: CAROLINE BREHMAN/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
“Even though education is supposed to open up doors and windows of opportunity, they have, in some ways, become a means of closing off opportunity,” said Nicole Smith, the chief economist at the Georgetown center.

The Ad Council, a marketing nonprofit that targets issues such as drunken driving, this summer launched a multiyear national advertising campaign aimed at reducing barriers to the workforce for non-college-degree holders. “Rethink bachelor’s degree requirements and discover a world of talent,” says one bus-stop poster.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in March said the government would review college-degree requirements for every state job. State and local governments have struggled to hire workers in the tight labor market.

Half a year later, Maryland said the program is showing early signs of working as intended. The number of state employees hired without a four-year degree from May to August is up 41% from a year before while the number of all employees hired is up 14%.

Opportunity@Work, a nonprofit that wants to cut degree requirements, worked with Maryland on its program. Bridgette Gray, the chief customer officer, said there are around 70 million Americans over the age of 25 who are in the workforce today and don’t have a college degree. Around four million are already in high-wage careers.

“College is a clear pathway to upward mobility, but it shouldn’t be the only pathway,” she said.

Mark Townend, who leads recruiting efforts for Maryland’s state jobs, said reducing degree requirements was a way to tackle a societal problem and to make finding employees easier for the government. Mr. Townend and his team have been examining and rewriting nearly 2,500 job classifications for nearly 60,000 state workers.

“We basically had a need for more applicants,” he said. “There is a large population of nondegree candidates who are good for our jobs.”

A recent Maryland job posting for an administrative officer paying up to nearly $80,000 a year said that the job required a high-school diploma and three years of experience. That same level job previously required four years of college.

Philip Deitchman, the head of human resources at Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services, said he previously declined job candidates without the right credentials. The state had specification sheets that had strictly defined job requirements, he said.

“We would say, ‘Wow we want this person,’ but they didn’t have a college degree,” he said. “I’m passing up someone really good.”

Governments are less flexible and have more stringent requirements than the private sector, economists said, partly because they often have rules intended to reduce corruption and political favoritism.



Mr. Deitchman said since the policy change he is seeing more applicants and higher quality job applicants.

“I would rather have someone with experience,” he said. “It’s just something that should have been done years ago.”

Patricia Bruzdzinski works as an employee specialist for Maryland, helping state workers navigate health insurance and other human-resources issues. Ms. Bruzdzinski said she was hired at a lower level in 2016, partially because she doesn’t have a college degree. She said the new policy should help her advance in her career and open doors for others to get state jobs.

Ms. Bruzdzinski said online training resources and learning on the job have allowed her to gain new skills for her $50,000-a-year position.

“It’s also about self-education,” she said. “I listen to podcasts on Medicaid.”
LINK:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/e...t-11669432133?page=1

Hard to fill jobs by equity bases if one has to meet standards. This could also be part of it

Often people of advanced degrees mistake education with knowledge. Diversity, equity, and inclusion has also put a strain on filling positions with the most qualified people. The biggest issue has been a complete lack or focus on results. We have two generations of people who think working hard is enough even while lacking results. When everybody gets a participation trophy, losing is an acceptable result. We keep lowering the bar to meet the mean instead of forcing the others to catch the better performers.

I did this starting in the late 90's. Good to see the rest of the world catching up

The very best people I have hired in IT have had either no degree or a degree in a totally unrelated field. I don't even look at academic credentials any more when I'm hiring.

The best IT people I know dropped out of college. Some learned on their own, others had great mentors. Apprenticeships for IT would be great as there are so many soft skills not part of school that affect one's career much more than classes and grades. Why aren't internships and apprenticeships more common in non-trades careers?

It is on the horizon. It is a great opportunity to make a lot of money. Universities are not interested, junior colleges may be. Free standing schools would be best. I personally know a few Navy Seabees who would love to teach the building trades. It would sure beat working at Lowes.

Go back to actually teaching grade level, and letting folks drop out after 8th grade, and high school degrees can mean something again.

Outside of STEM, almost no one needs more than a 12th grade education.

By tight labor market, are they talking about food service and retail jobs? Those seems to be in most need from what I've seen.

College seems like little more than a money making scam for most degree programs. At some point, they had the masses believing college is needed if you wanted to be successful in life and that the piece of paper opened up doors that you otherwise wouldn't have access to. Same with military service.

Both are false.

It is the overall experience that counts.
I started out as a Communications System Engineer at the Bendix Communications Division.

A colored engineer was my mender and his advice was to get all the free trade magazines and rip out the articles that may be of future use.

Trends come and go and this will rebalance as the country goes into a recession and layoffs start happening.

A college degree is just a check box and whether it should be a requirement depends on the job.

For the really great jobs, it's about who you know and who knows you.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
For the really great jobs, it's about who you know and who knows you.

You're absolutely right in my experience.

This job market is about to get un-tight.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
By tight labor market, are they talking about food service and retail jobs? Those seems to be in most need from what I've seen.

College seems like little more than a money making scam for most degree programs. At some point, they had the masses believing college is needed if you wanted to be successful in life and that the piece of paper opened up doors that you otherwise wouldn't have access to. Same with military service.

Both are false.

I think what's false in your interpretation, with all due respect, is thinking that success is equivalent to having doors open up that you otherwise wouldn't have access to. As I said in my post above, the real key to success, unless you're going to be a self-made entrepreneur, is who you know and who knows you.

For a journey level worker with no connections to begin with, having a college degree or military service does open doors for you. If I remember correctly, you completed an MBA, right? Did you cover Porter's 5 force competitive model? It's a good model to apply to yourself as a supplier in the labor market to give you a more objective perspective.

I understand how you may feel. I have two masters. I've been laid off twice after getting a college degree with the lay offs happening because the company operations were shut down. Both times, having those two masters on my resume helped get me interviews and job offers relatively fast. The last one even got me a signing bonus even though they knew I was being laid off.

I don't know if you're still waiting in line for a job but I learned something about waiting: If you're waiting in line for one hour, two hours, or six hours, you're going to be in that line for however long you're going to wait whether you're surly or hopeful with expectation. Being surly or hopeful isn't going to make the wait shorter or longer, it just determines whether your wait will be tolerable.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

For the really great jobs, it's about who you know and who knows you.

There's a lot of truth to that . I had a 40 year career that started with somebody I knew that said they were hiring where he worked . He dropped my name to the Manager and it was game on .

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
For the really great jobs, it's about who you know and who knows you.

I agree as well. It's bothersome as in college the pushed idea was that whoever was technically best would get the best jobs and be paid more. Sure, college recruiters interview and hire based on GPA, mostly, but after that it's all about who you know and who knows you.

Around here , Exxon/Mobil is a big time employer . Seems like most of the people there are legacy's or close friends of one .

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
As I said in my post above, the real key to success, unless you're going to be a self-made entrepreneur, is who you know and who knows you.

Even if you are going to be a self made entrepreneur, who you know and who knows you can be a tremendous boost.

In my case, I got a call to help out an old friend who was in a bad spot because of an employee in a key position leaving his company very suddenly. He asked me to help him out and I did. It worked out very well and from there, I started my own company doing the same thing I'd helped him with, which was niche market electronic design and programming.

He gave me great reviews when people would ask and then the company that made the dedicated controllers I specified started giving me great reviews. The whole thing snowballed and I became successful.

So who you know and who knows you can still be very helpful even to an entrepreneur.

As an aside, when I did jobs for California High Tech firms I met a number of Engineers, Software, Electronic and Mechanical who had no degrees but were working in Engineering positions so it's been going on for quite some time.

I’ve noticed this while perusing federal IT jobs. Most don’t have a college requirement anymore (I have six classes left to get my BS in Physics, I left college in 1998) and want experience and certifications. I have about six years of IT security experience with my current LE job and will be taking some certification classes so I qualify. I have 156 days of LE left before I can retire. I need something else to do.

Of course this doesn't apply to professional positions. I need to hire professional engineers that can seal work. You need a BS at a minimum.

I did not go to college. I didnt need to leave home to get drunk.