College degrees not meeting demand.

• Position: Careers

Some 63% of employers report that they are concerned about the growing skills gap in the U.S. An analysis of college degree completions versus job demand from CareerBuilder, Chicago, Ill., and Examination Management Services, Inc., Irving, Texas, shows that the next generation of workers will not be able to fill the void. According to a national Harris Poll survey of employers, commissioned by CareerBuilder, 49% of employers have experienced a negative impact on their business due to extended job vacancies, with 25% reporting a loss in revenue and 43% pointing to lower productivity.

To exemplify the current scope and potential exacerbation of an already debilitating talent deficit, data specialists at CareerBuilder and Emsi looked at a sample of college programs that are not producing enough graduates to keep pace with labor market demand.

While the programs highlighted in the study have grown at least 10% from 2009-14 and had at least 10,000 completions in 2014, they still are undersupplying candidates for occupations that already see big gaps between the number of jobs posted and the number of hires companies make each month.

For example, 157,591 people graduated with degrees in Computer and Information Sciences in 2014, a number that has increased 41% since 2009. While the growth is encouraging, it Is not enough. On average, from January 2015 to January 2016, 689,685 computer and information technology jobs were posted each month in the...