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	More Than Half of U.S. Workers Lack Basic Education, Study Says By John Taddei June 26 (Bloomberg) -- More than half the U.S. workforce lacks the education and skills needed for jobs that can support a family, a commission found, urging that Congress and states set aside more money for adult education and training. Those workers, about 90 million, didn't graduate from high school or attend college, couldn't speak English adequately, or had no access to training in special skills, the National Commission on Adult Literacy, an independent panel, said in a report released today. The share of 25- to 34-year-olds without a high school diploma exceeded the share of those 45 to 54. The U.S. lost more than 4 million manufacturing jobs in the past decade according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and baby boomers, the generation born from 1946 to 1964, are starting to retire. The New York-based commission, a panel of labor and business leaders formed two years ago, said Congress should increase annual spending to $20 billion by the end of the next decade for adult education and skills training, about five times the level under existing programs. "Americans are particularly struggling in those growing areas of our economy that now require more than a high school diploma,'' said Cheryl D. King, a former state official in Kentucky and incoming president of Kentucky Wesleyan College, in an interview yesterday. "What we've been overlooking in this country for years is the significant adult populations of our workforce that simply lack the basic skills to succeed in a 21st-Century economy.'' Education Levels Declining The U.S. is the only nation among 30 free-market democracies where a lower percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds have received high school diplomas than 45- to 54-year-olds, the commission said. More than 1.2 million young adults -- one in three – drop out of high school each year, the commission said. "Young Americans now are the first generation in American history to be less educated than the previous generation,'' said King, the director of the study. About 155 million people belonged to the U.S. workforce in May, the Labor Department reported earlier this month. The unemployment rate increased to 5.5 percent from 5 percent, the biggest jump in more than two decades, as more teenagers applied for jobs. Factories, builders and retailers axed workers. Spending $20 billion a year on training would serve 20 million people a year, up from about 3 million now. Current spending is under Titles I and II of the current Workforce Investment Act of 1998. Representative Patrick Kennedy, a Democrat of Rhode Island, will sponsor legislation to increase the number of adults enrolled annually in education and job training programs such as GED, English language proficiency and workplace certification classes. David A. Perdue, former chairman and chief executive officer of Dollar General Corp., based in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, chaired the commission. Dollar General, a chain of discount general stores mostly in the U.S. Midwest and Southeast, provided most of the financing for the report, giving $1 million, according to a commission statement.

More Than Half of U.S. Workers Lack Basic Education, Study Says

By John Taddei

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- More than half the U.S. workforce lacks the education and skills needed for jobs that can support a family, a commission found, urging that Congress and states set aside more money for adult education and training.

Those workers, about 90 million, didn't graduate from high school or attend college, couldn't speak English adequately, or had no access to training in special skills, the National Commission on Adult Literacy, an independent panel, said in a report released today. The share of 25- to 34-year-olds without a high school diploma exceeded the share of those 45 to 54.

The U.S. lost more than 4 million manufacturing jobs in the past decade according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and baby boomers, the generation born from 1946 to 1964, are starting to retire. The New York-based commission, a panel of labor and business leaders formed two years ago, said Congress should increase annual spending to $20 billion by the end of the next decade for adult education and skills training, about five times the level under existing programs.

"Americans are particularly struggling in those growing areas of our economy that now require more than a high school diploma,'' said Cheryl D. King, a former state official in Kentucky and incoming president of Kentucky Wesleyan College, in an interview yesterday. "What we've been overlooking in this country for years is the significant adult populations of our workforce that simply lack the basic skills to succeed in a 21st-Century economy.''

Education Levels Declining

The U.S. is the only nation among 30 free-market democracies where a lower percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds have received high school diplomas than 45- to 54-year-olds, the commission said. More than 1.2 million young adults -- one in three – drop out of high school each year, the commission said.

"Young Americans now are the first generation in American history to be less educated than the previous generation,'' said King, the director of the study.

About 155 million people belonged to the U.S. workforce in May, the Labor Department reported earlier this month. The unemployment rate increased to 5.5 percent from 5 percent, the biggest jump in more than two decades, as more teenagers applied for jobs. Factories, builders and retailers axed workers.

Spending $20 billion a year on training would serve 20 million people a year, up from about 3 million now. Current spending is under Titles I and II of the current Workforce Investment Act of 1998.

Representative Patrick Kennedy, a Democrat of Rhode Island, will sponsor legislation to increase the number of adults enrolled annually in education and job training programs such as GED, English language proficiency and workplace certification classes.

David A. Perdue, former chairman and chief executive officer of Dollar General Corp., based in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, chaired the commission. Dollar General, a chain of discount general stores mostly in the U.S. Midwest and Southeast, provided most of the financing for the report, giving $1 million, according to a commission statement.