The future of Missouri’s workforce may not be very bright. A recent CNBC analysis of the Top State for Business ranked Missouri at a less-than-stellar 32nd. This ranking is based on what CNBC describes as “which states are delivering most effectively on the things that mean the most to business” and contains 10 categories of “competitiveness.”
The worst news for Missouri is in the Workforce category. Metrics for this category include the concentration of STEM workers and the percentage of workers with bachelor’s degrees, associate’s degrees, and Industry Recognized Credentials (IRCs). It also includes net migration of educated workers, worker training programs, right-to-work laws, and worker productivity. Missouri ranked 49th out of 50 states in Workforce, garnering just 151 of the 400 possible points.
There are a few things we know about Missouri’s workforce now and its prospects for the future. The percentage of Missourians with college degrees has been declining in recent years. The percentage of Missourians with bachelor’s degrees has declined from 31.9 percent in 2020 to 31.7 percent in 2022. (For reference, it was 25.6 percent in 2010.) Not going up as fast or remaining stagnant is problematic. Declining is very bad news.
We also know that just 60 percent of our 61,200 high school graduates in 2022 were considered to be college or career ready when they left with their diplomas. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) determines college or career readiness by scores on the ACT or SAT college entrance exams, the ACT WorkKeys assessment, which measures career readiness skills, the Accuplacer assessment, which is a college placement exam, and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) military assessment.
So, our workforce is already in bad shape, and we are handing diplomas to nearly 25,000 high school graduates who are known to not be college or career ready. Wouldn’t you think that our leaders would be addressing this like the crisis that it is?
