May 11, 2020
By Melissa Leavitt, Ph.D.

Read Time

These days, few things in our nation look as they did in the early weeks of the year. But as our nation’s attention begins to shift toward what recovery might look like and educators, policymakers, and workforce development leaders discern where to focus their efforts, a wave of news from February 2020 might hint at a path forward.

Back then, the White House made an announcement that was, at the time, eye-popping for education institutions and training providers. It recommended a$900 million increase in funding for career and technical education. It was believed to be the field’s biggest funding boost ever.

Since then, millions of Americans have lost jobs, and most people who say they would need more education to find a new one believe they also would change career fields. But before anyone rushes into a new education or training program — or the government invests widely in retraining — we need to ensure people build the right skills that will result in a job now.

The best way to do that is to bring labor market analysis close to home. Just as local leaders are on the front lines guiding the coronavirus response that fits their region’s needs, our economic response also can benefit from taking a local view of the skills most needed by today’s workers and employers.

Long before any of us knew what “social distancing” meant, experts were concerned about a growing skills gap in the United States, driven largely by changes in technology. And now, in the wake of the pandemic, that gap could be exacerbated. Workers who have lost jobs in industries that have been upended may seek employment in new fields. As job tasks evolve or, in some cases, dramatically shift, many Americans will need skill-based training to keep up.

But as we consider ways to address this skills gap, we need to remember that there is no “national” market for skills. Instead, each region of the country contends with a unique set of labor market dynamics. A recent analysis of real-time labor market data by Emsi and the Strada Institute for the Future of Work found that “skill shapes” vary widely across regions. The skills that one region lacks, another may have in abundance.

That tells us that we don’t just need to address a skills gap. We need to watch out for a skills surplus, too.

Take cybersecurity as an example. As nearly every aspect of our lives moves online (virtual cocktail hour, anyone?), we should all be concerned when we hear about a persistent skills gap in the field. In the past year, the United States saw a talent shortfall of 158,000 information security analysts, cybersecurity’s largest job. And in a recent survey, 71 percent of employers said that a cybersecurity skills shortage is damaging their organizations.

But when you zoom in at the local level, what looks like a shortage could actually be a surplus. The analysis from Strada Institute for the Future of Work and Emsi found a surplus of certain skills among cybersecurity professionals in Indianapolis, for example. In this area, professionals with data warehousing skills were clogging the market, while there were gaps in various information security certifications.

Surpluses generally appear in lopsided markets, where there are too many jobseekers with skills concentrated in the wrong areas. They’re most apparent when considering the labor market from the jobseeker’s perspective, and help explain why the prospects of even the most qualified professionals can vary so much across industries and regions. (That doesn’t mean, however, that skills surpluses are good for employers. A skills surplus in one area usually leads to a shortage in other key areas.)

As we enter a time when jobs are more scarce, a skills surplus can undermine employment prospects even further. But once jobseekers understand the skill shapes in their region, they can identify which skills will help them secure stable employment and avoid wasting their time and money on something employers aren’t asking for.

Skill shapes also give education providers a better understanding of how to provide more tailored, just-in-time learning that is attuned to regional needs. Now that day-to-day life is leaving many of us exhausted — and a full-time degree program seems far out of reach — these precision education programs will be the most effective and efficient way to build in-demand skills.

The last thing we need during this crisis is for workers and employers to invest their scarce resources developing the same skills others in their community already offer, leaving other, more vital skill needs unfilled. Paying attention to local skill shapes — gaps and surpluses included — can guide the education and employment pathways that will help our economy recover from its current turmoil.

Melissa Leavitt, Ph.D.

Director of Research
Strada Education Network
Learn More

In the news from Strada

July 29, 2021
Things To Know Now About the Future of Nondegree Credentials
July 14, 2021
How Student Supports Can Reverse Enrollment Declines
June 22, 2021
‘Concerned, Worried, and Anxious’ — Insights From Recent High School Grads
June 8, 2021
What Will Reconnect Disrupted Learners to Education?
May 26, 2021
How Community Colleges Can Lead Our Economic Recovery
May 11, 2021
Mentoring, Networking, Scholarships — How This Program Pulls Them Together
April 27, 2021
How Work Changed for Good in 2020, According to Employers

Recruiting, hiring, and training improvements are here to stay, employer survey says
April 14, 2021
Innovator Spotlight: Project Basta

This career exploration and readiness program’s formula for learner success combines social capital, self-discovery to launch career pathways for first-gen grads
April 13, 2021
How To Improve Value of Higher Ed? Increase Career Support

Just half of college alumni feel it was worth it to take out loans to attend college, with even lower levels of satisfaction from Black and Latino alumni about their loans.
April 1, 2021
Powering Purpose

Invest now in community colleges to fuel economic opportunity
March 31, 2021
Ready for Work? How To Prep New Grads for Tech Jobs

Talent Path’s Learn-and-Earn Model Bridges Skills Gap Between College and Career

March 16, 2021
How to Make Online Ed Work for Students

Can the pandemic induce higher education to jump-start the future of learning?
March 2, 2021
The Hybrid Campus — More Than a Quick Fix?

Amid a pandemic crisis characterized by stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions, the leader of the career center at Stony Brook University describes its fallout with an unexpected word: freedom.
February 17, 2021
Prior Learning Assessment Gives Boost to Not Just Students but Schools, Too

In her early 20s, Kiabeth Santos was well on her way to achieving her goal of becoming a nurse. She wanted to work in health care, and she loves working with people. But then life — as it often does — got in the way.
February 2, 2021
How One HBCU Helps Students Succeed

XULA President Reynold Verret on How His HBCU Helps Students Succeed
January 21, 2021
Are We Ready for This?

Preparing the Education-Workforce System for the 100-Year Career
January 5, 2021
What Learners Taught Us in 2020 — and What Those Takeaways Mean for 2021

In the earliest days of the pandemic, researchers at Strada Center for Education Consumer Insights realized leaders across our nation would need a real-time understanding of how people were experiencing, thinking about, and feeling about work and education. The research team launched a regular survey, Public Viewpoint, to make these insights widely available — ultimately including more than 25,000 survey participants over the course of 2020.
January 4, 2021
Increasing Opportunity for All, During the Pandemic and Beyond

‘Lessons Earned’ Podcast Talks With JFF’s Michael Collins
December 22, 2020
Paving Education-to-Employment Pathways with Shared Information and Insights

The story of one learner’s journey through education and employment is told across several data sets. Enrollment and graduation outcomes tell one part of the story, with labor market information and employer data filling in the blanks. Brighthive, led by CEO and founder Matt Gee, is connecting siloed data systems so learners, employers, and educators alike can make better informed decisions about preparing tomorrow’s workforce.
December 15, 2020
7 Ways To Make College Admissions More Equitable

Application requirements favoring families who can apply and commit early without comparing financial aid packages. A preference for legacy students and star athletes. A tendency to recruit from the same high schools year after year.
December 3, 2020
A Year Inside College Admissions: ‘Lessons Earned’ Podcast Opens Season 3 With Author Jeff Selingo

It’s college application season, and anxious students and parents throughout the country are strategizing on how to get into the elite colleges of their choice. Journalist and author Jeff Selingo just spent a year inside college admissions offices at three higher education institutions to write his latest book, “Who Gets In and Why.”
November 24, 2020
Long Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs That Don’t Even Exist Yet

Long Life Learning offers readers a glimpse into a future where the average working life has no beginning, middle, or end. Contemplating a shift from the educational all-you-can-eat-buffet of college and university to an “as-you-need-it” approach to delivering education, author Michelle Weise explains why and how worker education is overdue for momentous changes.
November 17, 2020
Coming Soon: ‘Lessons Earned’ Season 3

Strada’s “Lessons Earned” podcast, featuring conversations with innovative thinkers and doers seeking to improve the education-workforce system, returns soon as host Ben Wildavsky welcomes a new co-host for Season 3, Braven founder and CEO Aimée Eubanks Davis.
November 11, 2020
Innovator Spotlight: Techtonic

Techtonic Academy’s apprenticeship program is building a more diverse talent pipeline for the tech industry
July 16, 2020
What Role Should Employers Play in Postsecondary Education?

Facing unprecedented demand for groceries and other goods delivered to the doors of those isolated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon has on-boarded 175,000 employees nationwide in the past few months and continues to hire.
July 8, 2020
Combining Technology and Human Touch to Help Displaced Workers

Faced with job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans are turning to outplacement services provided by their former employers for help in their next job search. But with the economy faltering and whole categories of jobs going away, job seekers are struggling, and the resume writing, interview prep, and networking assistance that may have provided a boost in the past just aren’t enough now.
May 14, 2020
WGU President: Secret to Online Learning Is Putting Students at the Center

Lessons Earned podcast features Scott Pulsipher talking about competency-based education
May 11, 2020
Stay Home

Why understanding local labor markets will be critical to our economic recovery
May 8, 2020
Braven Doubles Down to Help Students, Alums Build Social Capital Despite Pandemic

Latest Lessons Earned podcast features conversation with founder
May 4, 2020
5 Ways Higher Education Can Better Serve Latino Students

Excelencia offers insights on helping Latino learners during the pandemic and beyond