Now, let’s look at some data related to people.
CIO Dive looks at the requirements changes for job candidates – those skilled through alternative routes or STARs. Quoting the piece:
A 2022 report by the Burning Glass Institute found that some 46% of middle-skill occupations and 31% of high-skill occupations saw degree requirements reset between 2017 and 2019. More recently, Maryland’s state government dropped four-year degree requirements for thousands of roles, and the push to hire for skills over degrees even received a shoutout at the 2022 State of the Union address.
But employers seeking to expand opportunities to STARs may need to consider making more fundamental changes to how they hire. That could mean a full reset of all positions, from top to bottom.
I also noted two pieces of data – new census data from the Census Bureau, showing an aging population (median age up 3.4 years) and more diverse – every race and origin group grew from July 2020 to July 2021 except the white population, which fell 0.03%. More interesting, the location moves – more to the West and the Sun Belt during the pandemic.
The second is research from the New York Fed – since 2021, Hispanic and Black Americans have experienced slightly higher inflation rates than white or Asian Americans. The study highlights how the Consumer Price Index is average and doesn’t give enough insight into how different households are experiencing price increases.
Why do we care?
While the research goes into making monetary policy more inclusive – and I’d encourage follow-up reading – my takeaway follows up on the last piece. Similar to inflation impacting different demographics, industries will also feel differently. We may be sifting through a lot of data to find ones relative to your business, which may differ from a similar company in another town or industry.
On hiring, how impactful would it be to make very distinct changes to the screening process to move to those skilled through alternative routes? There’s a power in that diversity of thought too, and opening up the filters can prove a wise choice in the current state of play.