Carnevale, A. P. & Rose, S. J. The Undereducated American. Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, Washington, 2011. Pages: 44.

As of late, there have been myriad publications addressing the need to increase college completion rates in the US. This new study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce in Washington, DC, is the next such effort to critically examine the failure of the US to produce enough tertiary-level workers to satisfy the demand in the labour market. Moreover, the authors go one step further to argue that the under-supply of highly-skilled workers has exacerbated the country's income inequality.

The main assertion of the study is that the addition of 20 million more tertiary-level graduates into the US labour market by 2025 would have a two-pronged effect: the closing of the country’s disparate income gap and largely satisfy the US economy's demand for highly-skilled labour. Moreover, the study claims that this mission should not be seen as elective. Indeed, if college completion rates remain the same over the next 15 years, the income gap between America's richest and poorest will further widen. While this undertaking might appear daunting, the authors note that the higher education capacity in the US is sufficient to meet the challenge.     

Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce