July 1, 2009
Edited and Written by Ira S. Wolfe
Published by Success Performance Solutions. Major Sponsor,
2008 Best Places to Work In Pennsylvania
What's Inside this issue of The TotalView:
Half of Working Age Adults Lack Literacy Skills
When I think about The Perfect Labor Storm, the following gets my attention.
More than half (52.2 percent) of working-age Philadelphians (550,000 adults) lack necessary work force literacy skills, which means they struggle to follow written instructions or complete a form, such as a job application. More than 202,000 of the city's adults have failed to obtain a high school diploma.
Statewide the number is still a staggering 37.9 percent, at a time when some level of post-secondary education is not an option but a requirement for even entry-level jobs.
Adults that fall below the literacy standard can only qualify for a third of the jobs in the current economy, which is roughly 211,000 jobs - and that's just in Philadelphia. By 2030, another 50,000 in the city will not have the basic literacy skills to compete for jobs in the economy unless the problem is addressed now, according to the Help Wanted report released by the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board.
According to another just released report on 'Working Learners' (www.americanprogress.org), there are 75 million Americans between the ages of 18 to 64, or 60 percent of our workforce, who still have no postsecondary credentials and who are not currently enrolled in a course of education. This comes at a time when nearly half of all new jobs created by 2106 will require postsecondary credentials. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs requiring postsecondary education will grow by 17 percent - nearly double the rate of 8.8 percent for jobs that do not require such a credential.
Unfortunately Philadelphia and Pennsylvania are not the exceptions to this very sad state of workforce preparedness. This crisis is repeated across dozens of states, hundreds of cities, and thousands of towns. The U.S. graduation is hovering around 70 percent, meaning only 7 out of every 10 students who start 9th grade graduate from high school. And in nearly 2,000 "dropout factories" nationwide, more high school students dropout than graduate.
What needs to be done? Are any readers experiencing this high rate of illiteracy in the workplace? Please click here to post your comments and recommendations.
Perfect Labor Storm Warnings 
The typical bachelor's degree recipient can expect to earn about 61 percent more over a 40-year working life than a typical high school graduate.
Working Learner www.americanprogress.org
For more workforce and hiring trends. subscribe to the Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 blog.
Purchase the NEW Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 books (soft and hard cover versions) at PerfectLaborStorm.com.
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- Accounting
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Quotes from Hire Authorities
"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong."
Charles Wadsworth
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