Why U.S. Adult Literacy Will Hinder the Post-Covid Recovery
Written by Ned Zimmerman-Bence, Co-Founder of GogyUpIn the current conversation about labor shortages, little attention is paid to three interrelated, chronic issues that will subvert and hinder economic recovery for many communities:
Changing workforce demographics.
Widespread limited literacy in the U.S. adult population.
Constricted capacity to teach adults with limited literacy the skills necessary to thrive in an increasingly technical workplace and society.
Issue 1: Changing Demographics: Increasing Retirements, Decreasing Population
As the pandemic shutdown businesses and other organizations, retirements increased when employers of all types used early buyouts and other strategies to trim workforces. However, according to the Pew Research Center, the rate of retirements was accelerating even prior to the pandemic due to the surge in baby boomers aging out of the workforce.
Coupled with the increased retirement rate is the decreased number of adults that will be available to work. Dual declines in the national birth rate and net immigration equate to fewer workers to replace the forecast surge of retirees. Automation and other innovations may relieve some of the pressure, but it is clear that manufacturers and other employers will continue to need more employees than demographics predicted. In fact, 77% of all manufacturers expect labor shortages to remain a significant barrier to growth. Meanwhile, work is becoming increasingly specialized and technical as the majority of new jobs and changing job roles require the ability to understand technical documents.
Source: 2019 National Manufacturing Outlook and Insights
Issue 2: One in Six U.S. Adults Are Severely Limited in Their Literacy Capability
Since 1991, when the United States Federal Government first began to quantify the level of literacy in the U.S. adult population, the literacy rate of adults has remained between 80 and 85% - creating an endemic, chronic deficit in the skills of a significant part of the U.S. workforce and exacerbating cyclical disparities, including family economic security and personal health.
Currently that rate stands at 81%. The other 19% represents millions of adults who are in their prime working years that are unable to understand any printed text beyond just basic vocabulary or even the basic the structure of sentences or paragraphs or make use of other text features.
The magnitude of 19% working-age adults unable to read beyond basic words comes into focus when that percentage is translated into an actual number:
38,980,326
Over THIRTY-EIGHT MILLION adults!
38,980,326 adults who need to navigate increasingly more complex systems to access health care or education for their families.
38,980,326 adults who qualify for a shrinking supply of jobs and lack the fundamental skills necessary to engage in an increasingly technical workplace.
But then there's nearly 64 million more...
While a host of reasons (e.g., undiagnosed or untreated dyslexia, limited English proficiency, interrupted schooling) contribute to the scope and endemic strength of such a colossal societal failure, the problem of limited literacy is actually much, much larger.
According to the most recent large-scale assessment of U.S. adult literacy, an estimated additional 63,599,479 working age adults struggle to read “dense texts...and the ability to identify, interpret, or evaluate one or more pieces of information, and often require varying levels of inference” - skills that are essential for understanding work instructions, technical manuals, etc.
38 million U.S. working age adults with severely limited to no literacy skills
plus
nearly 64 million additional adults who are not yet fully proficient
Those two groups equate to 102 million working-age adults or just about HALF of the U.S. working age population who are not considered proficient at reading. That's not only a significant obstacle to solving the labor supply crisis but also a massive threat to U.S. economic security.
What about the U.S. education system?
That brings us to our next number: 10%.
Issue 3: Severely Constricted System Capacity
The Adult Education system is tasked with an exponentially more difficult task than the traditional kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) system. Not only does the system take "all comers" older than age 18, it also must provide:
Basic instruction in English language (e.g., English as a Second Language instruction).
Print literacy instructions for any age or ability.
Preparation for any and all adult learners for the Graduate Equivalency Diploma (GED), regardless of their previous education or academic ability.
Training for any and all adult learners for the workforce.
The gamut of services the Adult Education system must provide becomes even more impressive when considering the circumstances:
a majority of part-time or volunteer staff,
a fraction of the per-learner funding the K12 system receives
a population that has a naturally high attrition rate due to work and other life circumstances common in adult life.
Even with often herculean efforts, the Adult Education system is able to provide instruction to only 10% of the working age adults in need of literacy instruction.
In summary:
Employers, including 77% of manufacturers, expect a chronic labor shortage.
102 million working age adults are not proficient in basic reading literacy.
The adult education system's severely constricted capacity will never close the gap.
So, where's the opportunity? And why is adult literacy in such a state?
Over the coming weeks, we'll share stories about how GogyUp's assistive-reading technology and embedded literacy instruction can play a role in solving the complex, multi-faceted problem that labor shortages, widespread limited adult literacy, and a constricted adult education create. Other posts will further delve into the three issues that shaped GogyUp's formation as well as how the issue of limited adult literacy touches different aspects of our society.
Where do these numbers come from?
38,980,326
19% of U.S. adults are at or below Level 1 proficiency.
Number of working-age adults on 08/31/2021: 205,159,610 (via St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank)
.19 * 205,159,610.03994 = 38,980,325.9075886
64 million (or 63,599,479.1123814)
31% of U.S. adults are at PIAAC Level 2 proficiency. (National Center for Educational Statistics - NCES)
2019 NCES report: 65.1 million adults are at Level 2
65.1 / 206.2 adults age 16 to 65.
Number of working-age adults on 08/31/2021: 205,159,610 (via St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank)
.31 * 205,159,610.03994 = 63,599,479.1123814
10% of adults with limited literacy have access to the instruction they need.
ProLiteracy compilation of U.S. Adult Literacy Facts states that "only 10% of adults have access to the instruction they need."
Unfortunately, those that do have access will need to wait: 50% of programs have waiting lists.
Interested in GogyUp's technology and its ability to improve how your employees, learners, or family members understand complex documents and text? Click here.
