The majority of Americans (63%) believe that technology is rapidly changing the way we do our jobs, but they say the nation’s workforce doesn’t have the skills they need to keep up with those changes, according to the first WorkingNation American Workers Survey to be released on Labor Day.
Skills development is now viewed as a critical piece of the existing workforce’s thinking.
The way we work has been changing for decades and it continues to change. To be sure, in light of the pandemic, the change is accelerating and the path to future jobs and careers will look different than it did a few months ago.
We are a nation that has a robust and capable workforce that needs a new road map. This means upskilling our workforce now to ensure that each man and each woman has the skills they need in an economy that is putting more emphasis on technical skills, knowledge-based tasks, and automation than ever before.
Now is the time to point towards workforce solutions that already exist—and may need to grow larger out of necessity—and towards new solutions that are evolving out of this crisis.
How they think they should get those skills, and who should be responsible for helping them get them, is all a part of the new survey, conducted on WorkingNation’s behalf by Frank Luntz and his company, FIL.
Watch the Axios interview
Luntz presented a sneak peek of the full findings in an interview with Mike Allen, co-founder of Axios. The Axios event—The Future of Employability—was co-presented online by Microsoft and looked at how we need to embrace the future of work.
Making sure workers are ready with the skills they need for constantly changing jobs is key. It is time to #ReThinkReady.
“This is not a political issue. This is not a partisan issue. This is not based on income or education. At any time, you could lose your job because of automation or because of globalization or outsourcing, and you have to be prepared,” said Luntz.
He went on to say that policymakers and business leaders should be “working together to ensure that we are prepared for any contingency” and ensure that workers learn the skills they need. So “they can learn what they need to know to be competitive and to be prepared for college, career, and life, and that working adults are prepared for any event, and that they actually embrace the future.”
The full results of the WorkingNation American Workers Survey will be released in our new digital magazine, Inquire Within, on Labor Day, Monday, September 7.
