A recent analysis conducted by career site Indeed revealed that a significant number of job postings across various occupations did not specify explicit education requirements, including roles in retail and nursing. The data from Indeed, shared with Business Insider, depicted the minimum level of education mentioned in US job postings by sector in January. It's worth noting that job postings often cited multiple educational backgrounds; however, this study focused on the lowest level of education indicated in each posting.
Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told BI that the data shows that not mentioning an education is "pretty common even at some of the higher levels and even in some of the sectors where education is more typical."
"I think that points towards some of that potential for skills-first hiring to maybe even impact some of those knowledge worker types of sectors," Stahle said.
Whether an education level is noted or not, unemployed people applying for new work and people hoping to switch jobs might see lots of skills being mentioned.
"From a lot of the other research we've done, we've seen that the length of job descriptions has gotten longer over time," Stahle said. "Employers have not only become more likely to put retirement benefits and other types of perks in postings, but they're also putting more and more skills and trying to do a better job of enumerating skills."
To be sure, some gigs might have an assumed education level that isn't explicitly stated in a posting. Physicians and surgeons had one of the highest shares of postings in the new analysis not to mention an education. Stahle said, "When you go to hire a doctor, it's just assumed that they'll have certain levels of education."
Stahle pointed out that there could also be diversity in terms of jobs and the education needed within groups, such as roles within the pharmacy sector. A table from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a high school diploma or equivalent is the "typical education needed for entry" for pharmacy technicians or pharmacy aides. However, a doctoral or professional degree was noted in the table for pharmacists.
How educational requirements have changed in postings
"If you look at sectors where educational requirements are typically pretty low, we've still seen those requirements fall even further, which is interesting," Stahle said.
The new Indeed report noted sectors with big percentage point declines over the last few years for mentions of bachelor's degree or higher in postings. Project management had the biggest drop; this share slipped by 9.2 percentage points from January 2019 to 58.1% this past January.
Information design and documentation saw its share mentioning a bachelor's or higher fall by 9.0 percentage points.
"Educational requirements have loosened over the past half-decade in 41 of the 47 (87%) occupational sectors analyzed by Indeed, and the pullback is larger in some sectors — including tech-adjacent information design & documentation and software development — than in others," the new post by Stahle about the analysis stated.
Stahle pointed out to BI that software development also saw the share of postings noting a bachelor's or higher fall amid tech layoffs. While the share fell 8.4 percentage points from January 2019 to this past January, it also slid from 61.9% in January 2022 to 56.0% this past January.
"Interestingly, the layoffs have happened, but many of the tech employers have still continued to cut in their other job postings," Stahle said. "I think to some degree that could signal a little bit of a change in the way that these tech companies are maybe hiring. It could be kind of an indicator that they're looking towards more of these skill-based or skills-first type of hiring approaches and really shifting up business strategy."