Nearly half of surveyed employers — 48% — think higher education will become more important over the next five years amid growing use of artificial intelligence, while only 26% think it will become less important, according to data released Tuesday by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation.
Across industries, large majorities of employers said that college degrees would be at least as important as they are today.
By the numbers
60%
The share of employers who had either a “great deal” (26%) or “quite a lot” (34%) of confidence in higher education as an institution. Meanwhile, only 38% of U.S. adults generally reported high levels of confidence in the higher education sector, according to an earlier poll.
8%
Proportion of employers who said they expected college degrees to become “much less important” over the next five years due to the rise of AI.
73%
Employers who said college degrees would be at least as important as they are today amid the AI rollout. That includes the 19% who expect degrees to become “much more important.”
The sector with the largest share of employers who felt degrees would become less important was business and professional services, with 37% saying credentials would be somewhat or much less important. It was followed by leisure and hospitality, with 34% who said college degrees would become less important.
Across industries and organization sizes, 80% of employers say they prefer candidates with college degrees regardless of the position’s requirements, with 31% strongly preferring them.
That preference varies somewhat by size. At companies with fewer than 10 employees, 62% of those in charge of hiring preferred college graduates. At the largest organizations, 86% of employers preferred candidates with degrees.
The report’s authors pointed to widespread speculation about “how artificial intelligence will reshape the labor market and the credentials employers demand.”
“The employers who make those decisions do not, for now, appear to be turning away from the degree,” they wrote.
Tuesday’s survey marked the second annual study from Lumina and Gallup on employer sentiment on higher ed. It was based on an August online survey of over 2,500 people who made hiring decisions at their organizations.