One key prediction from LinkedIn’s 2023 The Future of Recruiting report drew attention to skills-first hiring. Recruiters were 50 percent more likely to search by skills than they were to search by years of experience, according to the report. Looking ahead, 75 percent of recruiting professionals predicted skills-first hiring will be a priority for their company in the next 18 months.

“Skills-first hiring is the concept that employers should consider the skills a prospective employee has gained through education, career training or work experience rather than simply relying on a degree as a threshold for employment,” explains Julie Lammers, senior vice president of advocacy and corporate social responsibility for American Student Assistance, as reported in the Wisconsin State Journal. 

Skills-first hiring has been an ongoing trend in recent years.  

A 2022 study from Jobs For The Future and American Student Assistance supported the rationale for hiring based on skills. The research was based on “interviews and baseline surveys of 1,500 Gen Z teens and more than 600 employers, to understand current familiarity with and perceptions of non-degree postsecondary pathways.”

Key Findings

• Of employers polled, 81 percent said organizations should hire based on skills rather than degrees.  
• Most employers (72%) don’t see a degree as a reliable signal for assessing the skills of a candidate. Yet the majority (52%) still hire from degree programs because they believe it is a less risky choice when hiring. 
• 68 percent of employers and 58 percent of high school students agree that organizations should hire candidates from non-degree pathways. 
• 74% of Gen Z want to earn skills that will lead to a good job.

While employers indicate they should hire based on skills, in practice a slight majority still rely on hiring candidates with degrees. Accordingly, viable skilled candidates are overlooked if they don’t have a degree.   

Hiring managers seeking talent aren’t always willing to take calculated risks on non-degree candidates. In contrast, many younger job seekers believe in learning needed skills outside of a degree program. They want those skills to lead to a good-paying job.  

Steadily, the practices of hiring managers and recruiters are evolving. Degree requirements are easing to find more candidates who have the skills to do the job.  

The Burning Glass Institute’s 2022 report stated in its executive summary:

“Employers are resetting degree requirements in a wide range of roles, dropping the requirement for a bachelor’s degree in many middle-skill and even some higher skill roles. This reverses a trend toward degree inflation in job postings going back to the Great Recession.” 

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this shift in hiring requirements already in process.  
 
The executive summary also noted: “When employers drop degrees, they become more specific about skills in job postings, spelling out the soft skills that may have been assumed to come with a college education, such as writing, communication, and being detail-oriented.” 
 
Recently, the language of job postings has evolved to emphasize soft skills that also include problem-solving, conflict resolution, critical thinking, and supervisory skills. These human skills or soft skills are no longer necessarily learned in college, especially for younger generations entering the workforce without a degree.