America’s skills gap has been widely discussed. The friction between postsecondary institutions failing to properly prepare job seekers and unrealistic employer expectations has led to seven million unfilled openings. Not surprisingly, the challenge worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, and there are still nearly as many unfilled jobs with near-record unemployment in a recession.

When the unemployment rate spiked during the spring of 2020, jobs that required a college degree declined more than those that didn’t, and new college graduates were hit the hardest. Not only did postings for bachelor’s level jobs fall the most, but entry-level jobs also dropped farthest and fastest. Analyzing data from Burning Glass, Wharton professor Matthew Bidwell found a diminishing number of entry-level jobs requiring a degree.

As a result, graduates are now competing against millions of experienced workers who have been sidelined due to the pandemic. And while employers want experience, no one wants to be the first to provide it.

Many employers are wrestling with their own Catch-22. With two-thirds of U.S. employees working from home and interacting with colleagues and customers remotely at the peak of the pandemic, many companies began to invest in digital transformation initiatives to address gaps in cloud adoption and cybersecurity. Many predict that the new wave of e-commerce triggered by shelter-in-place mandates will be here to stay, which will further drive demand for software engineering, data analytics, and digital marketing skills, which were already difficult to find. Through 2022, half of all planned cloud migrations will be delayed by two years or more due to the lack of trained talent.

Read the full article about the widening skills gap by Vera Song at EdSurge.