Increasing educational attainment has powerful positive effects on the economy: Any educational attainment above a high-school diploma, including trade certification, leads to increased employment opportunities, wage rates, and aggregate economic growth, this study finds.

Over the next decade, employers in nearly every state will face significant shortages both of workers with an associate degree or some college (nearly 800,000 workers) and of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher (over 8.5 million workers), leading to nearly $1.2 trillion in lost economic output.

This new study examines the two major adult-worker training programs along with federal apprenticeship programs. It concludes that while these federal programs are largely effective at placing workers in jobs today, their focus is concentrated in industry sectors that are not projected to experience the bulk of job growth over the next five years.

Executive Summary Higher education is facing a confluence of challenges: tuition inflation, mounting student debt, and decreasing value in a changing economy. National-level reforms – specifically accreditation reform and greater transparency – would pave the way for greater innovation at…