The report revealed a growing gap between the least and most educated American workers in everyday tasks like understanding text or manipulating fractions
American workers are falling behind in essential job readiness skills like reading, numeracy and problem-solving, according to the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies.
The latest global test administered in 2023 to 160,000 adults (including 4,600 Americans) across 31 industrialized countries revealed troubling trends in the US as it ranked 14th in literacy, 15th in problem-solving, and 24th in numeracy.
Meanwhile, eight countries, Finland, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Estonia, Belgium and Denmark, topped the three categories again.
The report revealed a growing gap between the least and most educated American workers in everyday tasks like understanding text or manipulating fractions.
In the assessment conducted last year,
- 34% of US adults had math abilities below the primary school level, compared to 29% in 2017.
- Nearly 2% of Americans achieved top proficiency in complex and advanced math and statistics. Finland’s rate was 5.3%, the highest globally.
- The share of US adults scoring at the lowest levels of literacy was 28% in 2023, compared to 19% in 2017.
These numbers show that one-third of Americans may struggle with basic math, while more than a quarter would find it tough to understand complex text.
The rankings also reflect the struggling US workforce since the COVID-19 lockdowns upended the education system.
The gap between workers’ skills and employers’ needs has widened since the pandemic; engineering exam scores dropped 10%.
Other professional tests, including college entrance exams, military assessments and nursing exams, also saw a fall in scores, according to organizations administering the tests.