Strada Education Network, a national social impact organization dedicated to forging pathways between education and employment, has released a new analysis of its weekly, nationally representative survey tracking the impact of the global pandemic on Americans’ lives, work, and education.
In an analysis of the Public Viewpoint data, leisure and hospitality (73 percent), construction and extraction (63 percent), and personal care and services (63 percent) are the fields with the largest numbers of Americans reporting work or income loss. Yet, workers in personal care and services jobs are the least likely to report an interest in pursuing additional education. The analysis also finds that about half of all workers in manufacturing, finance, and information technology would look for a job in a different field if they lost their job.
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“The COVID-19 crisis has left millions of Americans without work, and the impact–while widespread–is not evenly felt across career fields,” said Andrew Hanson, Director of Research at the Strada Center for Consumer Insights. “As we look to help Americans reskill and re-enter the workforce, it’s critical to understand where we should be targeting our efforts and how education and training can best be delivered.”
A majority of workers say they would pursue non-degree or skills-based education and training, and ideally do so online, were they to enroll in the next six months. Additional key findings from the Public Viewpoint: COVID-19 Work and Education Survey include:
- 51 percent of IT workers, the highest percentage in any field, say they are worried about losing their job as a result of COVID-19.
- Workers in the education sector (66 percent) are the most likely to believe that COVID-19 will personally impact them for more than six months, followed closely by business workers at 59 percent and government workers at 58 percent.
- 36 percent of workers would look for a job in a different field if they lost their job, including nearly half of workers in manufacturing (46 percent), finance (46 percent), and IT (45 percent).
- IT (49 percent) and finance (45 percent) workers are the most likely to say they would need additional education or training to find another job with the same wages or income.
- The workers who are most confident they know the skills they would need to get the job they want are those in IT (68 percent), education (68 percent), and healthcare (67 percent).
- Those who are the least confident about the skills they would need include two of the job fields most likely to have lost income: personal care and services (46 percent) and leisure and hospitality (57 percent).
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