U.S. adults fall behind in basic life and job skills

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
1

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/america-us-math-proficiency-falling-1b5ac73c?mod=hp_lead_pos9

In a Test of Adult Know-How, America Comes Up Short

The least-educated workers are falling behind on basic skills such as reading a thermometer and planning a trip

By Douglas Belkin, The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 10, 2024

When it comes to basic skills such as creating a complex travel itinerary, reading a thermometer or finding information from a website, American workers are falling behind those in other rich countries.

That is according to a global test of adult know-how, which measures job readiness and problem-solving among workers in industrialized countries. The results, released Tuesday, largely show that the least-educated American workers between the ages of 16 and 65 are less able to make inferences from a section of text, manipulate fractions or apply spatial reasoning—even as the most-educated are getting smarter…

“There’s a dwindling middle in the United States in terms of skills,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of a statistical agency at the Education Department. “Over time we’ve seen more adults clustered at the bottom.”…The number of U.S. test-takers whose mathematics skills didn’t surpass those expected of a primary-school student rose to 34% of the population…

During the pandemic, the gap between the skills employers need, and those that workers have, grew wider. Among the approximately 40,000 candidates taking the Fundamentals of Engineering exam for work as professional engineers, scores fell by about 10%. Test scores also fell in college entrance exams, military assessments and nursing exams, according to nonprofits and other organizations who administer the tests… [end quote]

Here’s a link to the data.

From a Macroeconomic point of view, the concern is that employers won’t be able to find workers with the skills they need. Even professionals, like engineers and nurses, are losing skills. This doesn’t bode well for American competitiveness.

Wendy

7 Likes
2

That is the situation that “common core” was created to address, but then it was demonized and demagogued, in a cynical program to manipulate people. Of course, Friedman’s push to offshore everything to where it was cheaper, making USian workers expendable, could have also played a role in denigrating education, as a cost to be minimized.

Steve

7 Likes
3

I have been told by a friend that leaving people as stupid is a goal. I won’t get into his ideology but you can guess.

He wanted someone to just push a broom. Why waste money educating them?

4 Likes
4

Exactly. The “JCs” can outsource anything that requires education to foreigners, who were educated at someone else’s expense. One of the better known cases is when Disney tossed 250 USian IT workers, and replaced them with Indians on H1-B visas.

And after the incoming administration closes the Dept of Education, and cancels all Federal education funding, what do you think they will do with the money? Reduce the deficit, or use it to cover more tax cuts for the “JCs”?

1 Like
6

I’ve been saying this for years.

{{ “There’s a dwindling middle in the United States in terms of skills,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of a statistical agency at the Education Department. “Over time we’ve seen more adults clustered at the bottom.”

Nearly 2% of Americans scored the highest level of proficiency and were able to understand complex abstract mathematical and statistical information.

By comparison, 5.3% of Finnish test takers could manage those problems—the highest among any country. }}

free link:
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/america-us-math-proficiency-falling-1b5ac73c?st=Bub6ee&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

intercst

2 Likes
7

There are 3 types of Americans. Those that can count and those that can’t.

8 Likes
8

Why? Roomba is far cheaper–and more readily replaced at a lower cost.

9

Always a good idea to check for previous threads.

DB2

10

I guess the extended school use of zoom teaching didn’t work well after all.

Mike

11

One political party understands this and wins elections by focusing on simple slogans and appealing to peoples’ subliminal fears. Meanwhile,
the other party relies on facts and reason and is therefore labeled elitist.

Since higher education is now seen by the majority as a bad thing, it is not surprising that Americans are becoming less educated.

I blame social media. Social media gives the lowest common denominator a huge public forum. This has led to the normalization of ignorance, superstition, and conspiracy belief. We have made it okay to be stupid.

My past experience with the former Twitter is that most of the information is inaccurate and most of the opinions espoused are from people you would want to cross the street to avoid. Anyone getting their information from X, which is even less moderated is in my opinion an idiot.

Every minute spent on social media is a minute that could have been spent doing something useful.

7 Likes
12

Depends how you define “didn’t work”.

13

There, fixed that for you…
:grin:

6 Likes
14

Scary. It won’t be long before we’re irrigating our crops with Brawndo.

4 Likes
15

And yet, here we all are!

16

I also occasionally eat a hot dog when I know I shouldn’t. We all have our guilty pleasures. The important thing is to be realistic about where you are getting your information from and when you are doing something that is probably unproductive.

TMF is better than most, but I still wonder if I would be better off interacting the old fashioned way rather than virtually in anonymity.

1 Like
17

Higher indoctrination?

The Captain

1 Like
18

I know some really sharp young(er) people. They busted their behind to get thru college, and work hard at their jobs and family life. There are definitely differences between them and baby boomers, but that’s to be expected.
I also know some young people who seem to live life thru their smart phone. Some of that we all do nowadays, but us old people don’t seem to be tethered to it like that. Seems pretty weird to me, but they probably think some of the stuff we do is weird, also.

Have to admit, I got a kick out of young coworkers trying to navigate with a paper map during a storm that knocked out the internet and the Map Navigation on their phone. Totally clueless about picking and staying on a route, and estimating time.
Also get a kick out of clueless people trying to navigate in the woods while hiking or skiing. They have never used a compass in their life, and have a hard time with the basic concept of E,W,N,S, and how to orient to a trail map. Everybody gets turned around, but with a compass and map, as well as paying attention to start direction, it’s usually easy to get back on course. I’ve helped out a few people who were going 180 degrees the wrong way while out skiing or hiking.

Took a couple of woodworking classes recently, and a couple of the youngsters appeared to have never touched a tool in their lives. But a couple of them also had some skills and drive to learn.

I would say that Boomers need to consider how the previous generation looked upon us, they did not have a real high opinion of our generation, either.

3 Likes
19

Meh. A separate thread here proclaims that artificial intelligence will surpass human ability by 2030. So what do we need smart humans for, again?

I remember the criticism of calculators back in the day. The math teachers wouldn’t let you near one, because as soon as you could use it you’d forget - or never learn - the multiplication tables. Well, it turns out they were right, but now that everyone carries a calculator in their pocket, who cares? (Oh, sure, there’s a tiny elite who still knows how to do square roots and other arcane stuff, but we’re talking about humanity here, right?)

Just lay back and let the machines take over. It’s all gonna be swell. Promise.

7 Likes
20

Off shoring manufacturing means fewer good paying jobs, less on job training, and less reason to train for those jobs.

Let’s hope reshoring reverses this trend.

21

IMO, the root cause is that educational skills are demonized in this country by conservative political and conservative religious movement. To them education is woke. They do not trust education and our complex government systems. They want to blow big holes in the constitution, rule of law, science, medicine, environment and social justice.

Educational systems and the teaching of skills are being dumbed down in many places. I would like to see some data on this dumbing down by states/counties, political party, religious organizations and income status. Where are these adults who are falling down, and what are the reasons for their falling behind in life and job skills. We also need to know how their up bring and primary education were factors.

Or is it all do to too much computer entertainment time and not enough learning?

1 Like