CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE

CLOSING

THE

DIGITAL

SKILL

DIVIDE

FEBRUARY 2023

THE PAYOFF FOR

WORKERS, BUSINESS,

AND THE ECONOMY

By Amanda Bergson-Shilcock

and Roderick Taylor

with Nye Hodge

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This report was written by Amanda Bergson-Shilcock and Roderick Taylor of National Skills Coalition

with data analysis by Nye Hodge, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The report team included Jeannine

LaPrad and Rachel Unruh of National Skills Coalition and Sarah Miller, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

The opinions expressed in this report reﬂect those of the authors and do not necessarily reﬂect those of

the Federal Reserve System or the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

About National Skills Coalition: Jobs that require skills training are the backbone of our economy.

National Skills Coalition ﬁghts for a national commitment to inclusive, high-quality skills training so

that more people have access to a better life, and more local businesses see sustained growth. Since

2000, through expert analysis and technical assistance, broad-based organizing, targeted advocacy, and

cutting-edge communications, NSC has changed hundreds of state and federal skills policies that have

changed thousands of lives and grown local businesses and economies.

About the Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta:

The Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity focuses on employment policies and labor mar-

ket issues that affect low- and moderate-income individuals. It acts as a bridge between research and

practice, connecting researchers, businesses, and policymakers with innovative approaches to creating

economic opportunity through education and employment. The center also contributes to economic

research and monetary policy discussions by tracking labor market trends affecting low- and moder-

ate-income workers.

CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................. 3

CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE ..................................... 7

Missing from the digital divide discussion: Skills ...................... 8

Almost all jobs now require digital skills ..................................... 9

Not just a silicon valley problem: The digital skill

divide spans every industry and ﬁrm size .................................. 13

Inequities within the digital skill divide........................................ 14

The payoff of closing the digital skill divide ............................... 15

RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................. 18

ENDNOTES .................................................................................... 20

APPENDIX ..................................................................................... 23

State Proﬁle: North Carolina ....................................................... 25

State Proﬁle: Illinois ....................................................................... 38

METHODOLOGY ............................................................................ 52

CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 1

NOW — AS LEADERS DESIGN

LABOR MARKET POLICIES

TO DRIVE A THRIVING AND

INCLUSIVE ECONOMY — IT IS

IMPERATIVE TO UNDERSTAND

THIS ACCELERATION OF

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.

2 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 3

EXECUTIVE

SUMMARY

ven before the coronavirus pandem-

ic began, policymakers, business-

es, and workforce advocates were

already recognizing that workers

were not being replaced by robots, but rather,

being called upon to work hand-in-glove with

rapidly evolving technology.

When the pandemic struck, millions of U.S.

companies hustled to change how they did

business. Nearly every worker suddenly had

to contend with new digital demands — even

those in frontline, essential roles. The im

pact of the digital skill divide became more

acute, weighing disproportionately on work

ers of color and smaller businesses strug-

gling to survive a tumultuous economy.

Now — as leaders design labor market poli

cies to drive a thriving and inclusive econ-

omy — it is imperative to understand this

digital transformation. This report takes

a ﬁrst-ever look at the demand for digital

skills in the U.S. economy, as measured by

a dataset of 43 million “Help Wanted” ads

posted during 2021.

The opinions expressed in this report reﬂect those of the

authors and do not necessarily reﬂect those of the Federal

Reserve System or the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

A note about terminology:

This report uses digital

skills and technology

skills interchangeably.

2 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 3

The ﬁndings in this analysis are unequivocal:

■

There is overwhelming demand for digital skills

in the labor market, with 92 percent of all job ads

requiring deﬁnitely digital or likely digital

skills.

This demand is robust across all industries, and

small businesses are just as likely as their larger

peers to seek workers with technology skills.

■

Yet many workers have not had sufficient oppor-

tunity to build such skills; earlier research found

that nearly one-third of U.S. workers do not have

foundational digital skills, and workers of color fall

disproportionately into this category due to struc-

tural inequities.

■

Equipping workers with necessary skills requires

action by both private employers and public policy-

makers. Notably, public investments in workforce

development and education are especially vital

given the unevenness of private investments and the

prevalence of digital skill demands among smaller

businesses, which depend on publicly funded work-

force and education partners to upskill employees.

■

Closing the digital skill divide has major payoffs for

businesses. Prior research has shown that workers

value upskilling opportunities and prefer working

for employers who offer clear, well-deﬁned path-

ways to advancement.

Because turnover has heavy

costs for businesses – with estimates ranging from

$25,000 for workers who leave within the ﬁrst year

to over $78,000 for workers who leave after ﬁve

years,

averting or delaying turnover by ensuring

that workers have upskilling opportunities can be

economically signiﬁcant.

■

Public investments in closing the digital skill divide

can also generate economic benefits for individ-

ual workers and the broader economy. People

who qualify for jobs that require even one digital

skill can earn an average of 23 percent more than

those working in jobs requiring no digital skills —

an increase of $8,000 per year for an individual

worker.

These increased earnings could result in

more state and federal tax revenue generated by

each worker. Depending on the household size and

composition, this could range from $1,363 to $2,879

per year.

SKILLS HAVE BEEN MISSING FROM

THE DIGITAL DIVIDE CONVERSATION

Vivid news stories of the “homework gap” have helped

drive public awareness and urgency around access to

broadband and high-quality devices. But, while the dig-

ital access divide has gotten high-proﬁle coverage, the

digital skill divide has not.

Awareness of the digital skill divide began to grow with

passage of the $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act

as part

of the 2021 federal infrastructure law. This funding will

help people build digital skills as well as obtain access

to broadband and devices, and will help states to close

equity gaps among key populations, including people

of color, low-income individuals, veterans, and rural

residents.

ACROSS

INDUSTRIES,

92%

OF JOBS

REQUIRE DIGITAL

SKILLS

47%

deﬁnitely require

digital skills

do not require

digital skills

45%

likely require

digital skills

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 5

RECOMMENDATIONS

Ensuring that public investments are intentionally

focused to remedy the digital skill divide and related

inequities is vital to U.S. economic success.

As the fed-

eral Digital Equity Act is implemented in states, policy-

makers will have a powerful opportunity to close gaps in

racial, gender, age and geographic equity. Similarly, as

ofﬁcials work to update landmark policies such as the

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), it is

crucial to incorporate the latest ﬁndings on how to close

the digital skill divide.

Building on the ﬁndings laid out in this report, there

are three overarching principles to guide leaders’

decisionmaking:

1. A digital skill foundation for all.

All workers need the opportunity to develop broad-

based, ﬂexible digital problem-solving skills for current

technologies and ongoing technological shifts.

■

Policymakers can support this goal by investing in

free or low-cost digital skills training for workers, and

ensuring that workforce development and education

providers are equipped to provide high-quality upskill-

ing programs.

■

Workforce and education advocates and providers

can support this goal by speaking up for digital equity

investments that support workers’ goals and aspira-

tions and respond to local businesses’ skill needs.

■

Corporate decisionmakers and influencers can use

their platforms to ensure that skills are central to digi-

tal divide discussions in the public and policymaking

spheres.

2. Ongoing upskilling for every worker in every

workplace.

Workers in every industry need the opportunity to

develop industry- and occupation-speciﬁc digital skills to

adapt and advance in their careers.

■

Policymakers can support this goal by investing in

industry sector partnerships

that can collaborate

with community colleges and other training providers

to ensure that the talent development process is con-

nected to industry-speciﬁc skill needs and jobs.

■

Workforce and education advocates and providers

can encourage policymakers to embed digital prob-

lem-solving skills as allowable or required activities

under existing workforce development, adult educa-

tion, and higher education policies, as well as digital

equity policies.

■

Corporate decisionmakers and influencers can

implement policies and practices that support digital

upskilling for workers at every level of their organiza-

tions. Smaller businesses can participate in regional

industry partnerships that support these efforts

across small businesses at scale.

3. Rapid reskilling for rapid re-employment.

We need to be ready for sudden disruptions to the labor

market or speciﬁc industries. Policies should support

rapid reskilling so workers can move from one industry

to another.

■

Policymakers can support this goal by supporting

access to skills for workers who have lost their jobs,

including those transitioning to a new industry. This

includes ensuring that student ﬁnancial aid policies

match the reality of how digital skills are acquired.

■

Workforce and education advocates and

providers can support this goal by sharing their

expertise with policymakers on topics such as best

practices in closing racial equity gaps in digital

skill-building opportunities.

■

Influencers and corporate decisionmakers can

educate state and federal policymakers about the

skills mismatches they are experiencing and the

kinds of technology skills their companies need to

be successful.

CONCLUSION

Despite the high demand for digital skills and the desire

for skill building opportunities among workers, many

have not had the opportunity to fully develop such

skills.

These burdens fall unequally on workers and

entrepreneurs of color. Investing in digital skill-building

can help individual workers increase their incomes,

allow businesses to thrive, and create positive eco-

nomic spillover effects for local, state, and national

economies.

This report puts actionable data into the hands of

elected ofﬁcials, education and training providers, and

corporate decisionmakers, allowing them to fully tackle

the skills aspect of the digital divide.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 5

WHAT IS A DIGITAL SKILL?

Some digital skills are foundational

skills such as email, simple spread-

sheets, data entry, or timecard soft-

ware. Others are industry-specific

skills, such as bookkeepers using

QuickBooks, manufacturing workers

using AutoCAD, or home health aides

using electronic medical records.

WHAT IS THE

DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE?

The digital skill divide is the space

between those who have the robust

access and support needed to engage

in skill-building opportunities and those

who do not. As technology evolves, the

digital skill divide prevents equal par-

ticipation and opportunity in all parts

of life – including people’s ability to get

good jobs and advance in a career.

6 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 7

ven before the coronavirus pandemic struck

in 2020, policymakers, businesses, and work-

force advocates were already recognizing that

workers were not being replaced by robots, but

rather, being called upon to work hand-in-glove with

rapidly evolving technology.

This new awareness brought home the importance of

developing digital resilience,

which equips workers and

businesses to continuously adapt to changing technolo-

gies. At the same time, it spotlighted the stark economic

costs caused by uneven investment in people’s skills and

new technologies — namely, decreased ﬁnancial security

and career opportunities for workers themselves, and

reduced productivity for ﬁrms.

A growing understanding of this digital skill divide also

illuminated how the ripple effects of historical policies

and structural racism continue to contribute to mod-

ern-day inequities in digital skills and access,

and the

vital role of public policy and practice in remedying

inequities caused by prior policies.

When the pandemic struck, millions of businesses hus-

tled to change how they served their customers. Nearly

every worker suddenly had to contend with new digital

demands — even those in frontline, essential roles. The

impact of the digital skill divide became more acute,

weighing disproportionately on some workers — includ-

ing workers of color and low-wage workers — and smaller

businesses struggling to survive a tumultuous economy.

Now — as leaders design labor market policies to drive

a thriving and inclusive economy — it is imperative to

understand this acceleration of digital transformation.

The ﬁndings in this analysis are unequivocal: policymak-

ers, business leaders, workforce advocates, educators,

and training providers who gain perspective on this

transformation and its impact on the digital skill divide

(including population inequities within that divide), will

be well-positioned to reap the economic payoff of clos-

ing the divide.

Key ﬁndings include:

■

There is overwhelming demand for digital skills in the

labor market, with 92 percent of all job ads requiring

deﬁnitely digital or likely digital skills. This demand

is robust across all industries, and holds true even for

entry-level jobs that require zero to two years of expe-

rience or a high school diploma. And small businesses

are just as likely as their larger peers to seek workers

with technology skills.

■

Yet, many workers have not had sufﬁcient oppor-

tunity to build such skills; earlier research found

that nearly one-third of U.S. workers do not have

foundational digital skills, and workers of color fall

disproportionately into this category due to structural

inequities.

■

Equipping workers with necessary skills requires action

by both private employers and public policymakers.

Notably, public investments in workforce develop-

ment and education are especially vital given the

unevenness of private investments and the prevalence

of digital skill demands among smaller businesses.

Small businesses employ 47 percent of private-sector

workers

and rely more heavily on publicly funded

CLOSING THE

DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE

THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS,

AND THE ECONOMY

ACROSS

INDUSTRIES,

92%

OF JOBS

REQUIRE DIGITAL

SKILLS

47%

deﬁnitely require

digital skills

do not require

digital skills

45%

likely require

digital skills

6 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 7

workforce development and education partners

(rather than in-house programs) to upskill employees.

■

Closing the digital skill divide has major payoffs for

businesses. Prior research has shown that workers

value upskilling opportunities and prefer working for

employers who offer clear, well-deﬁned pathways

to advancement.

Because turnover has heavy

costs for businesses — with estimates ranging from

$25,000 for workers who leave within the ﬁrst year

to over $78,000 for workers who leave after ﬁve

years,

averting or delaying turnover by ensuring

that workers have upskilling opportunities can be

economically signiﬁcant.

■

Public investments in closing the digital skill divide

can also generate economic beneﬁts for individual

HOW THIS REPORT WAS PRODUCED

To produce this report, the research team analyzed

43 million online job postings published in 2021 and

collected by Lightcast (formerly known as Emsi

Burning Glass). The dataset assembled by Lightcast

included information on the particular skills associ-

ated with each job posting.

The typical job ad required applicants to have 8

different skills. Across all ads, there were 15,000

distinct skills extracted and standardized by

Lightcast from the universe of 2021 job ads. The

authors of this report manually coded the top

50 percent of these skills — that is, the 7,500

skills that were most often requested in job ads.

(Notably, however, this top 50 percent accounted

for 99.99 percent of job ads, while the remaining

uncoded skills only accounted for .01 percent of

jobs.) This coding formed the basis for the original

analysis and ﬁndings in this report.

The research team coded each skill according to

whether it was deﬁnitely digital, likely digital, or

not digital. Knowledge of Salesforce software or

the Python programming language were coded

as deﬁnitely digital. An example of a likely digital

skill would be survey design or bookkeeping —

tasks that today are frequently accomplished

with the use of a computer or other digital device,

but could still be carried out in an old-fashioned

analog fashion. An example of a not digital skill is

changing diapers.

Further information is available in the

Methodology section at the end of this report.

workers and the broader economy. People who

qualify for jobs that require even one digital skill

can earn an average of 23 percent more than

those working in jobs requiring no digital skills —

an increase of $8,000 per year for an individual

worker.

These increased earnings could result in

more state and federal tax revenue generated by

each worker. Depending on the household size and

composition, this could range from $1,363 to $2,879

per year.

MISSING FROM THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

DISCUSSION: SKILLS

The time is ripe for an analysis of this issue. In the past

few years, vivid news stories of the “homework gap”

coupled with images of people — often low-income fami-

lies of color — trying to access wiﬁ from parking lots and

other makeshift setups have helped drive public aware-

ness and urgency around solving the digital divide.

Policymakers at all levels of government have responded

with initiatives to help individuals and businesses access

high-speed internet, obtain digital devices, and otherwise

equip themselves for full participation in today’s increas-

ingly digital society. Corporate leaders, philanthropists,

educators, and worker advocates have been equally

motivated to tackle these widespread challenges.

But, while the digital access divide has gotten high-pro-

ﬁle coverage, the digital skill divide has a much lower

proﬁle. This has only recently begun to change with pas-

sage of the federal Digital Equity Act as part of the land-

mark Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021.

For the ﬁrst time, Congress invested $2.75 billion in state

and local efforts to help people build digital skills as well

as obtain access to broadband and devices. Importantly,

this legislation identiﬁes a number of “covered popula-

tions” — including people of color, low-income individ-

uals, rural residents, and veterans, among others — for

whom states must speciﬁcally work to close equity gaps

in digital access and skills.

As implementation of the new law begins, stakeholders

have a unique opportunity to build on the momentum

of this trailblazing legislation, while also identifying the

additional resources needed to fully address workers’

and businesses’ digital skill needs. This report puts

actionable data into the hands of elected ofﬁcials,

education and training providers, and corporate

decisionmakers, positioning them to tackle the skills

aspect of the digital divide.

8 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 9

ALMOST ALL JOBS NOW REQUIRE

DIGITAL SKILLS

The overwhelming majority of jobs in the U.S. labor

market now require technology skills. Fully 92 percent

of the forty-three million online job ads analyzed for

this study are seeking workers who have at least one

deﬁnitely digital or likely digital skill. More speciﬁcally,

nearly half (47 percent) of all job ads list at least one

skill that is deﬁnitely digital — that is, requiring job

applicants to be able to use a software program like

AutoCAD or QuickBooks. Another 45 percent of all

job ads list at least one skill that likely requires digital

capability, such as customer account review, making

travel arrangements, or clerical support.

This high demand for technologically skilled workers is

reﬂected across each of the ﬁfty states, the District of

Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Hawaii and Alaska are at

the high end of the spectrum, with 93 percent of job

postings in both states requiring workers with deﬁnitely

digital or likely digital skills.

But even the state at the

bottom of the list, Montana, still shows a robust 88 per-

cent of all job ads seeking workers with deﬁnitely digital

or likely digital skills.

This demand for technology skills stretches across every

industry in the U.S., and nearly every occupation, includ-

ing entry-level and frontline workers. Gone are the days

when only software engineers or white collar workers

needed digital skills. Today, job ads seeking janitors, food

service workers, and agricultural workers also cite the

need for digital skills.

The importance of workers having a baseline of founda-

tional digital skills and experience with widely used soft-

ware products is illustrated by their appearance as some

of the most requested skills across all forty-three million

job postings. Indeed, across all 15,000 skills captured

in this dataset, Microsoft Excel was the ninth most

requested skill, mentioned in more than 4.9 million

postings, and the general skill of computer literacy was

thirteenth on the list.

Even entry-level jobs increasingly demand

digital skills.

Among job ads seeking workers with zero to two years of

experience — primarily new entrants to the workforce

— fully 95 percent of ads required a deﬁnitely digital

or likely digital skill. The numbers were only just barely

higher for workers with more experience. (See Figure 1.)

However, there was a difference within the subset of

ads requiring a deﬁnitely digital skill. Nearly half (49

percent) of jobs seeking entry-level workers with zero to

two years of experience included a deﬁnitely digital skill.

The number leapt to more than two-thirds (71 percent)

of ads for workers with three to ﬁve years of experience.

(Also shown in Figure 1.)

FIGURE 1: Digital skills are in high demand in job ads

for entry-level workers (2021)

2021 job ads

seeking:

Percentage of ads

requiring a likely

digital skill:

Percentage of ads

requiring a deﬁnitely

digital skill:

0-2 years of

experience

95% 49%

3-5 years 98% 71%

6-8 years 99% 81%

9+ years 98% 75%

Note: Because not all job ads include a “years of experience” require-

ment, this ﬁnding reﬂects the universe of the 20 million job postings for

which Lightcast was able to discern such a requirement

8 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 9

Some occupations have especially fast growing

demand for digital skills.

While some occupations show slow but steady growth

in the percentage of job ads that require digital skills,

other occupations have shown a much quicker increase.

For example, in 2019 just 15 percent of ads for oilﬁeld/

rig worker required a deﬁnitely digital skill. But just

two years later, in 2021, that number had risen to 38

percent. Other jobs with rapid increases included diesel

mechanic, community health worker, tool and die maker,

and loss prevention/asset protection specialist. These

examples show how rapidly the landscape is changing in

certain segments of the labor market.

Even jobs that require limited education still

demand digital skills.

Even positions that require workers to have relatively

less education are still overwhelmingly likely to require

digital skills. Fully 94 percent of job ads that require

applicants to have a high school diploma or equivalent

include at least one skill that is deﬁnitely digital or likely

digital. This number rises slightly for job ads requiring

higher-level educational credentials. (See Figure 2.)

FIGURE 2: Digital skills are required for workers

regardless of their educational level (2021)

Education level

required

Percentage of

ads requiring a

likely digital skill

Percentage of

ads requiring

a deﬁnitely

digital skill

High School 94% 46%

Associate’s 97% 47%

Bachelor’s 99% 74%

Master’s 97% 46%

PhD 97% 39%

Findings are similar among the subset of jobs that

require at least one deﬁnitely digital skill. Forty-six

percent of jobs requiring a high school diploma request

such skills, as do forty-seven percent of jobs requiring an

associate’s degree.

SURPRISING BUT TRUE: YOUNGER

WORKERS NEED DIGITAL SKILLS TOO.

While it is often assumed that younger workers

are so-called “digital natives” who automatically

know how to use technology, research shows this

is often not the case. An earlier study by NSC

found that fully 25 percent of workers with no

foundational digital skills and 29 percent of those

with very limited foundational skills were between

the ages of sixteen to thirty-four.

One reason behind this phenomenon is that

younger workers — like their older peers — often

have fragmented knowledge. That is, they are

comfortable with some digital tasks, such as

sending a text message or making a TikTok video,

but not comfortable with others, such as creat-

ing a spreadsheet. For this reason, it’s especially

important that workforce and education programs

provide opportunities for people to build from the

skills they have to the skills they need.

Avoiding assumptions about younger workers —

just like avoiding age-related stereotypes about

older workers — is crucial to ensuring that policies

and programs address the real rather than per-

ceived needs of workers and businesses.

Many jobs require industry-speciﬁc digital

skills, not just foundational skills.

Contrary to the assumption that simply acquiring

baseline, foundational skills might be sufﬁcient for most

workers, there is robust demand for more sophisticated,

industry-speciﬁc skills. Many employers sought these

higher-level skills even for positions that required rela-

tively little education or experience.

For example, 92 percent of all jobs requiring 0-2 years

of experience required an industry-speciﬁc digital skill.

Within the subset of jobs that required a deﬁnitely

digital skill, nearly two-thirds, or 65 percent, required

applicants to have an industry-speciﬁc digital skill, either

alone or in combination with foundational digital skills.

Only 35 percent of these job postings requested founda-

tional skills alone.

10 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 11

Again, looking within the subset of jobs that required

a deﬁnitely digital skill, there were somewhat similar

trends by level of education. In this case, jobs requiring

just a high school diploma were twice as likely to require

only foundational digital skills as jobs requiring educa-

tion or training beyond high school. But even then, a

robust 43 percent of jobs requiring a high school edu-

cation demanded industry-speciﬁc skills, either alone or

in combination with foundational skills. (See Figure 3.)

Examples include job postings for warehouse workers

that require robotics skills, and ads for security ofﬁcers

that require digital video skills.

Full-time jobs are more likely to require digital

skills, but part-timers still need technological

expertise.

Fully 93 percent of ads seeking full-time workers sought

people with deﬁnitely digital or likely digital skills, com-

pared to 91 percent of ads seeking part-time workers.

However, within the sub-category of job ads seeking

workers with at least one deﬁnitely digital skill, there

was a divide: Nearly half (48 percent) of ads for full-time

workers required a deﬁnitely digital skill, compared to

one-third (31 percent) of postings for part-time workers.

FIGURE 3: Many employers seek workers with industry-speciﬁc digital skills (2021)

Level of education required

Percentage of deﬁnitely

digital jobs requiring

foundational digital

skills only

Percentage of deﬁnitely

digital jobs requiring

industry-speciﬁc

digital skills only

Percentage requiring

both foundational

and industry-speciﬁc

digital skills

High school diploma/equivalent 57% 16% 27%

Associate degree 33% 28% 40%

Bachelor degree 20% 39% 41%

Master degree 24% 49% 26%

Ph.D. 19% 62% 19%

NINETY-TWO PERCENT OF ALL JOB

ADS REQUIRE DEFINITELY DIGITAL OR

LIKELY DIGITAL SKILLS. THE DEMAND IS

ROBUST ACROSS ALL INDUSTRIES, EVEN

FOR ENTRY-LEVEL JOBS.

10 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 11

FIGURE 4: The demand for technology skills is robust across every industry (2021)

77%

73%

72%

66%

60%

56%

55%

54%

49%

45%

44%

41%

39%

38%

33%

32%

30%

23%

99%

98%

96%

99%

93%

96%

91%

94%

95%

89%

96%

92%

86%

91%

90%

95%

77%

95%

86%

85%

Information

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Management of Companies and Enterprises

Finance and Insurance

Manufacturing

Public Administration

Utilities

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

Wholesale Trade

Administrative and Support and

Waste Management and Remediation Services

Educational Services

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting

Construction

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

Health Care and Social Assistance

Transportation and Warehousing

Retail Trade

Other Services (except Public Administration)

Accommodation and Food Services

Definitely digital skill required Likely or definitely digital skill required

12 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 13

NOT JUST A SILICON VALLEY PROBLEM:

THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE SPANS

EVERY INDUSTRY AND FIRM SIZE

Every industry shows strong demand for

digital skills.

A common misconception is that digital skills are pri-

marily required for information technology (IT) jobs or

are only needed for certain industries. This study found

that digital skills are widely required across the entire

range of industries in the U.S. economy.

As shown in Figure 4, the percentage of job ads requir-

ing deﬁnitely digital or likely digital skills ranges from

a low of 77 percent among the transportation and

warehousing industry sector to a high of 99 percent in

the information and ﬁnance and insurance industries.

That is, even in the industry sector at the lowest end of

the scale, fully three-quarters of job ads seek workers

with technology skills.

Even when the criteria are narrowed to include only

those job ads that require a deﬁnitely digital skill (also

shown in Figure 4), many industries still show more than

half of all job ads demanding such skills. Here there is a

wider spread between industries overall, with the high

end still the information sector at 77 percent, and the

low end now the accommodation and food services

sector at 23 percent.

Small businesses need technologically skilled

workers too.

Smaller businesses have almost identical demand for

workers with technology skills as larger businesses.

While the dataset used for this analysis does not directly

measure the size of a company, ﬁrm size can be roughly

inferred based on the volume of job ads posted by the

company in a year.

Even among the smallest businesses — those that posted

between one and ﬁfty job ads per year — 90 percent of

ads required workers to have a deﬁnitely digital or likely

digital skill. (See Figure 5.) This is consistent with earlier

research from NSC

that found that small businesses

were nearly as likely as large ones to need workers with

digital skills, but that smaller companies relied much

more heavily on education and workforce partners to

help upskill workers, rather than developing full-scale

in-house upskilling programs.

FIGURE 5: Small businesses are almost as likely to post job ads requiring digital skills as larger

businesses (2021)

46%

49%

52%

53%

51%

44%

95%

94%

93%

90%

5001+ job ads

1001-5000 job ads

501-1000 job ads

101-500 job ads

51-100 job ads

1-50 job ads

posted in 2021

Likely or definitely digital skill requiredDefinitely digital skill required

12 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 13

INEQUITIES WITHIN THE DIGITAL

SKILL DIVIDE

Some digitally-demanding industries employ

fewer workers of color.

The long history of occupational segregation in the

U.S. labor market means that workers of different

demographic backgrounds, particularly different

races and ethnicities, are often clustered in partic-

ular industries. Among the industries in this study

with the highest demand for workers with digital

skills (shown in Figure 4), several have a dispropor-

tionate concentration of white workers. This includes

the information industry (65 percent white) and the

ﬁnance and insurance industry (67 percent white).

While there are many factors behind the complex

issue of occupational segregation — such as lack of

access to quality education and training, language

barriers, structural inequities, etc. — examples such

as these are notable.

The relatively lower concen-

tration of workers of color in these industries sug-

gests that they are missing out on opportunities to

earn higher wages, which can worsen existing racial

inequities in income and wealth.

In occupations with many workers of color,

a changing demand for digital skills.

Although workers of color are more concentrated in

industries with slightly lower demand for digital skills,

the landscape is changing rapidly within some speciﬁc

occupations. For example, the percentage of job postings

for community health workers that required digital skills

increased by 28 percent from 2019 to 2021. Community

health workers are disproportionately likely to be Black or

Latino compared to the workforce as a whole.

Industries that employ people with limited education

nevertheless need workers with digital skills.

Close to half (43 percent) of workers in the manufactur-

ing industry have a high school education or less,

a fac-

tor that is strongly correlated with limited digital skills.

Yet a high percentage of job postings in manufacturing

call for workers to have deﬁnitely digital (60 percent)

or likely digital (93 percent) skills. There is a similar

phenomenon in the administrative and support and

waste management and remediation industries, where

51 percent of workers have a high school education or

less, while job postings call for workers with deﬁnitely

(49 percent) or likely (89 percent) digital skills.

A HIGH PERCENTAGE OF JOB POSTINGS IN

MANUFACTURING CALL FOR WORKERS TO

HAVE DEFINITELY DIGITAL (60 PERCENT)

OR LIKELY DIGITAL (93 PERCENT) SKILLS.

14 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 15

THE PAYOFF OF CLOSING THE DIGITAL

SKILL DIVIDE

Despite the high demand for digital skills and the desire

for skill-building opportunities among workers, many

people have not had the opportunity to fully develop

such skills.

This lack of access to digital skill training

hits workers

and entrepreneurs

of color hardest.

Increasing public investments in digital skill building

can help individual workers increase their incomes,

allow businesses to thrive, and ultimately create

positive economic spillover effects for local, state, and

national economies.

Closing the digital skill divide would catapult

more workers into economic security.

At the individual level, previous research from NSC has

clearly established that having few or no foundational

digital skills is closely correlated with lower earnings.

This study provides new evidence that jobs requiring

digital skills have higher median wages than jobs that do

not. Workers who have opportunities to build in-demand

digital skills could potentially increase their earnings as

they acquire new skills.

If a worker who was previously employed in a job that

requires zero digital skills was able to move into a job

that requires a deﬁnitely digital skill, their hourly

wage would rise by 23 percent, or more than $8,000

per year, assuming both jobs paid the median hourly

wage for their respective skill levels.

This economic

bump would be signiﬁcant for individual workers and

their families — and would be even higher if the worker

acquired additional digital skills, as shown in Figure 6.

It is not unusual for jobs to require numerous digital

skills; nearly a quarter (22 percent, or nearly ten million)

of all job postings analyzed for this study required at

least three different digital skills. Even the highest

end — jobs requiring at least nine different digital skills —

comprised 5 percent of total job postings, or roughly

2.1 million ads.

FIGURE 6: As more digital skills are required, median hourly wage rises (2021)

$19.05

$17.62

$18.00

$21.64

$25.50

$30.58

$37.92

$43.00

Overall

(all jobs)

Job requires

no digital

skills

Job requires

only likely

digital skills

Job requires

one definitely

digital skill

Job require

three definitely

digital skills

Job requires

five definitely

digital skills

Job requires

seven definitely

digital skills

Job requires

nine definitely

digital skills

IF A WORKER WHO WAS

PREVIOUSLY EMPLOYED IN

A JOB THAT REQUIRES ZERO

DIGITAL SKILLS WAS ABLE

TO MOVE INTO A JOB THAT

REQUIRES A DEFINITELY

DIGITAL SKILL, THEIR HOURLY

WAGE WOULD RISE BY 23

PERCENT, OR MORE THAN

$8,000 PER YEAR

14 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 15

Investing in entry-level workers can help close

equity gaps.

As previously described, jobs that require no digital skills

offer substantially lower median wages than jobs that

do require such skills. Given this study’s ﬁnding that 94

percent of job ads seeking workers with a high school

diploma require digital or likely skills, as well as earlier

research documenting that workers with few or no digi-

tal skills are more likely to have low levels of education,

policymakers could prioritize upskilling these workers as

one element of closing equity gaps.

An analysis of The Census Bureau American Community

Survey data

shows that several of the “covered

populations” under the federal Digital Equity Act are

over-represented among workers with a high school

education or less, as shown in Figure 7. These workers

could beneﬁt from focused investment in their digital

(and other) skills. (See Figure 7.)

Closing the digital skill divide would support

small businesses and aid business economic

vitality.

Businesses face numerous costs associated with the

digital skill divide, which could be reduced if more work-

ers had access to learning necessary skills. Speciﬁcally,

earlier research by NSC found that having a workforce

with insufﬁcient access to digital skills functions as

an invisible drag on productivity, especially when the

people who lack digital skills are supervisors themselves,

because supervisors can serve as a bottleneck limiting

the productivity of other workers.

Public policy investments in workforce development and

education, such as the Digital Equity Act, are a key tactic

in addressing these challenges. Such policies are an

especially important support for small business, because

small businesses employ 47 percent of private-sector

workers,

and rely more heavily on publicly funded

FIGURE 7: Investing in workers with limited education could close equity gaps (2021)

13%

17%

19%

10%

11%

16%

15%

19%

16%

11%

15%

21%

13%

46%

44%

38%

20%

36%

Black

Latino

Immigrant

English learners

Persons with a disability

At or below 150% of poverty

% of all workers

age 25-64

% of workers whose highest

credential is a HS diploma

% of workers without

a HS diploma

16 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 17

workforce development and education partners (rather

than in-house programs) to upskill employees.

In addition, state and federal programs that support

the upskilling of incumbent workers can foster busi-

ness vitality.

Prior research has shown that workers

value upskilling opportunities and prefer working for

employers who offer clear, well-deﬁned pathways to

advancement.

Because turnover has heavy costs for

businesses — with estimates ranging from $25,000 for

workers who quit within the ﬁrst year to over $78,000

for workers who quit after ﬁve years, averting or delay-

ing turnover by ensuring that workers have upskilling

opportunities can be economically signiﬁcant.

Closing the digital skill divide would create

positive spillover effects for the broader

economy.

Public investments in closing the digital skill divide

can also generate economic beneﬁts for the broader

economy. As noted above, people who qualify for jobs

that require even one digital skill can earn an average of

$8,000 more per year than those working in jobs requir-

ing no digital skills.

These increased earnings could result in more state

and federal tax revenue generated by each worker.

Depending on the household size and composition, this

could range from $1,363 to $2,879 per year, as illus-

trated in Figure 8.

(Note: The states chosen here for

illustrative purposes, North Carolina and Illinois, are also

proﬁled in detail in the Appendix of this report.)

All of this increased economic activity for workers and

businesses would have additional positive spillover

effects for the communities in which they are located.

As workers earn more money, they are able to purchase

additional goods and services. As businesses increase

their revenue and proﬁts, they are able to invest fur-

ther in expansion, pay dividends to shareholders, and

increase wages.

FIGURE 8: Increased economic impact (combined Federal and State tax revenue) generated if workers move

from a job that requires no digital skills to a job that requires one digital skill

Household composition

Increased economic impact:

NORTH CAROLINA

Increased economic impact:

ILLINOIS

Single Adult, No Children $1,387 per year $1,363 per year

Single Adult, One Child $2,693 per year $2,879 per year

Two Adults, No Children $2,774 per year $2,726 per year

Two Adults, Two Children $2,816 per year $2,726 per year

Note: Calculations in this table assume each working adult is earning the median hourly wage as described above, and working 40

hours per week, 50 weeks per year.

BECAUSE TURNOVER HAS HEAVY

COSTS FOR BUSINESSES — WITH

ESTIMATES RANGING FROM $25,000

TO $78,000 — AVERTING OR DELAYING

TURNOVER BY ENSURING THAT WORKERS

HAVE UPSKILLING OPPORTUNITIES CAN

BE ECONOMICALLY SIGNIFICANT.

16 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 17

RECOMMENDATIONS

he ﬁndings outlined in this report are clear and unequivocal: The labor market is moving quickly

and inexorably toward greater digital skills requirements across every industry and nearly every

occupation. At the same time, the impact of the digital skill divide disproportionately falls on some

workers, including workers of color and those without education beyond high school.

Ensuring that public investments are intentionally focused to remedy inequities facing individuals and

communities is vital to the economic success of states and the country as a whole.

As the federal Digital

Equity Act (part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress in 2021) is imple-

mented in states, policymakers will have a powerful opportunity to close gaps in racial, gender, age and

geographic equity. Similarly, as ofﬁcials work to update landmark policies such as WIOA and other work-

force and education policies, it is crucial to incorporate the latest ﬁndings on how to close the digital skill

divide.

Given the ﬁndings laid out in this report, there are three overarching recommendations to guide leaders’

decisionmaking:

A DIGITAL SKILL FOUNDATION FOR ALL.

All workers need the opportunity to develop broad-based, ﬂexible, digital problem-solving skills for

current technologies and ongoing technological shifts.

Policymakers can support this goal by ensuring that policies targeting workers’ access to digital skills

meet workers — and the education and workforce development system — where they are. In particular,

policymakers can use federal Digital Equity Act and Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD)

funds to improve access to free or low-cost digital skills training for workers, and to ensure that workforce

development and education providers are equipped to provide high-quality upskilling services. This should

include providing high-quality professional development and technical assistance to aid workforce and

education providers in designing demand-driven digital skill-building programs.

Workforce and education advocates and providers can support this goal by speaking up for digital equity

investments that support people’s goals and aspirations, and helping policymakers connect the dots from

federal policies to speciﬁc opportunities in their own states and localities.

For example, providers may have gathered valuable data on the digital skill needs of workers and busi-

nesses that can inform policy implementation. In particular, individuals often identify “getting a job” or

“getting a better job” as their primary reason for enrolling in skill-building opportunities. Similarly, provid-

ers have often developed robust relationships with small businesses and industry sector partnerships that

can help identify opportunities to support individuals’ digital skill-building aspirations while also respond-

ing to local labor market demand.

Corporate decisionmakers and influencers can use their platforms to ensure that skills are central to

digital divide discussions in the public and policymaking spheres. The data provided in this report can help

to amplify opportunities in particular industries as well as to shift public conversation more generally to

include a skills lens.

18 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 19

ONGOING UPSKILLING FOR EVERY WORKER IN EVERY WORKPLACE.

Workers in every industry need the opportunity to develop industry- and occupation-speciﬁc digital

skills to adapt and advance in their careers.

Policymakers can support this goal by investing in industry sector partnerships

that can collaborate

with community colleges and other training providers to ensure that the talent development process is

connected to industry-speciﬁc skill needs and jobs. These partnerships can be speciﬁcally designed to

help close racial, gender, and other equity gaps

that have served to limit some workers’ access to jobs

that require technology skills.

Workforce and education advocates and providers can encourage policymakers to embed digital

problem-solving skills as allowable or required activities under existing workforce development, adult

education, and higher education policies, as well as digital equity

policies. For example, 30 states have

incumbent worker training funds that could be used to support digital skill building.

Corporate decisionmakers and influencers can implement policies and practices that support digital

upskilling for workers at every level of their organizations. Smaller businesses can participate in regional

industry partnerships that support these efforts across small businesses at scale.

RAPID RESKILLING FOR RAPID RE-EMPLOYMENT.

We need to be ready for sudden disruptions to the labor market or speciﬁc industries. Policies should

support rapid reskilling so workers can move from one industry to another.

Policymakers can support this goal by supporting access to skills for workers who have lost their jobs,

including those transitioning to a new industry. This includes ensuring that student ﬁnancial aid policies

match the reality of how digital skills are acquired. This could entail increasing ﬁnancial aid for compe-

tency-based programs. Policies could also support enrollment in high quality, short-term programs that

lead to employment and articulate to further educational pathways. These two solutions would create

meaningful on-ramps for individuals who might otherwise never pursue postsecondary credentials. It

could also include providing workers with the supports necessary to succeed in a training program — sup-

porting costs of childcare, transportation and other costs associated with job loss that can stand in the

way of someone being able to access the skill-building opportunity they need.

Workforce and education advocates and providers can support this goal by sharing their expertise with

policymakers and answering questions such as: What has your organization observed regarding digital

skill needs among staff, jobseekers, and learners? What policies have been most helpful in addressing

digital skill needs? What policies are getting in the way of addressing digital skill needs? What strategies

and tactics have been most effective in closing racial equity gaps in access to digital skills?

Influencers and corporate decisionmakers can educate state and federal policymakers about the skills

mismatches they are experiencing and the kinds of technology skills their companies need to be success-

ful, which some elected ofﬁcials may not fully understand. Promoting state and federal public policies

that support the development of industry partnerships provides another avenue for employers to help

build training programs in collaboration with local community colleges and training providers.

18 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 19

ENDNOTES

1 The research team for this report analyzed 43 million online job

postings published in 2021 and collected by Lightcast (formerly

known as Emsi Burning Glass). Across all ads, there were 15,000

distinct skills. The research team manually coded the top 50

percent of these skills — that is, the 7,500 skills that were most

often requested in job ads. (Notably, however, this top 50 percent

accounted for 99.99% of job ads.) The team coded each skill

according to whether it was deﬁnitely digital, likely digital, or not

digital. This coding formed the basis for the original analysis and

ﬁndings in this report.

2 The team coded each skill according to whether it was deﬁnitely

digital, likely digital, or not digital. Knowledge of Salesforce

software or the Python programming language were coded as deﬁ-

nitely digital. An example of a likely digital skill would be survey

design or bookkeeping — tasks that today are frequently accom-

plished with the use of a computer or other digital device, but could

still be carried out in an old-fashioned analog fashion. An example

of a not digital skill is changing diapers.

3 The New Landscape of Digital Literacy (National Skills Coalition,

2020.)

4 “How to improve the engagement and retention of young hourly

workers,” Kimberly Gilsdorf et al. (Harvard Business Review,

December 6, 2017.)

5 Roberts, Pasha. “The CFO and CHRO Guide to Employee Attrition.”

Workforce Solutions Review 6, no. 1 (January 2015): 8–10.

6 As detailed later in this report, in the Lightcast dataset used for this

analysis, jobs that require no digital skills had an average median

hourly wage of $17.62, compared to $21.64 for jobs that require one

deﬁnitely digital skill.

7 Feenberg, Daniel Richard, and Elizabeth Coutts, An Introduction

to the TAXSIM Model, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

vol 12 no 1, Winter 1993, pages 189-194. Shane Orr (2022). usincom-

etaxes: Calculate Federal and State Income Taxes in the United

States. R package version 0.5.4. https://cran.r-project.org/

package=usincometaxes

8 Learn more about the Digital Equity Act’s covered populations via

the U.S. Commerce Department’s ofﬁcial InternetForAll.gov site,

and NSC’s fact sheet.

9 The Roadmap to Racial Equity: An Imperative for Workforce

Development Advocates. (National Skills Coalition, 2019.)

10 Learn more about industry sector partnerships in the Sector

Partnerships Policy Toolkit (National Skills Coalition, 2015) and on

the NSC website.

11 For example, see Expanding Digital Inclusion via the Bipartisan

Infrastructure Law (National Skills Coalition, 2022.)

12 Applying a Racial Equity Lens to Digital Literacy (National Skills

Coalition, 2020.)

13 This deﬁnition builds on the deﬁnition of the digital divide used

by the nonproﬁt National Digital Inclusion Alliance, viewable at:

https://www.digitalinclusion.org/deﬁnitions/

14 The nonproﬁt Digital US coalition deﬁnes digital resilience as:

“having the awareness, skills, agility, and conﬁdence to be empow-

ered users of new technologies and adapt to changing digital skill

demands. Digital resilience improves capacity to problem-solve and

upskill, navigate digital transformations, and be active participants

in society and the economy.”

15 The New Landscape of Digital Literacy (National Skills Coalition,

2020.)

16 Examples of such inequities include digital redlining that limits

the availability of high-speed internet in some communities;

under-funded educational institutions that are unable to provide

their students with robust digital technologies for learning; and

barriers to access that limit students’ and workers’ ability to

build digital skills and businesses’ ability to advance into the dig-

ital age. In addition, limited income and limited access to capital

handicaps digital access and skill-building opportunities, often

exacerbated by the wealth gap and disproportionately affecting

workers and entrepreneurs of color.

17 For more on the role of public policy in remedying inequities, see

The Roadmap to Racial Equity: An Imperative for Workforce

Development Advocates (National Skills Coalition, 2019.)

18 The New Landscape of Digital Literacy (National Skills Coalition,

2020.)

19 Frequently Asked Questions (U.S. Small Business Administration,

October 2020.)

20 “How to improve the engagement and retention of young hourly

workers,” Kimberly Gilsdorf et al. (Harvard Business Review,

December 6, 2017.)

21 Roberts, Pasha. “The CFO and CHRO Guide to Employee

Attrition.” Workforce Solutions Review 6, no. 1 (January 2015):

8–10.

22 As detailed later in this report, in the Lightcast dataset used for

this analysis, jobs that require no digital skills had an average

median hourly wage of $17.62, compared to $21.64 for jobs that

require one deﬁnitely digital skill.

23 Feenberg, Daniel Richard, and Elizabeth Coutts, An Introduction

to the TAXSIM Model, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

vol 12 no 1, Winter 1993, pages 189-194. Shane Orr (2022).

usincometaxes: Calculate Federal and State Income Taxes in the

United States. R package version 0.5.4. https://cran.r-project.org/

package=usincometaxes

24 Learn more about the Digital Equity Act’s covered populations via

the U.S. Commerce Department’s ofﬁcial InternetForAll.gov site,

and NSC’s fact sheet.

25 For a full listing of state demand for digital skills, see the

Appendix.

26 The Lightcast dataset used for this report also includes some

job postings that required workers to have zero to two years of

experience in a particular role; those workers might not be new

entrants to the workforce at large.

27 Note for this figure: Data refers to the subset of 24 million job ads

(out of the total 43 million in this study) for which Lightcast was

able to discern an educational level.

28 The New Landscape of Digital Literacy (National Skills Coalition,

2020.)

29 It is unclear from this dataset whether higher-level jobs are genu-

inely less likely to require foundational skills, or simply less likely

to spell them out in their job descriptions. Preliminary indications

from qualitative interviews suggest that employers may assume

that workers with greater education have acquired basic digital

competence — even if that assumption is not always borne out in

reality — and thus do not bother to spell out the requirement in a

job description.

20 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 21

30 Qualitative interviews conducted by NSC suggest that part of the

story here is that smaller and more economically fragile businesses

are slower to digitize, meaning that their ‘likely digital’ tasks (such

as order processing or inventory management) may still be manual

or analog, while larger and better-resourced businesses have

already moved those functions to software systems.

31 Notably, this is only an approximate measure, because there is

substantial variation in the “churn” rate of turnover across different

companies and industries, and thus the volume of job postings that

might be posted in a given time period.

32 Boosting Digital Literacy in the Workplace (National Skills

Coalition, 2020.)

33 Demographic data throughout this section comes from the U.S.

Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates

(2016-2020.)

34 For example, see: The Evolution of Occupational Segregation in

the United States, 1940–2010: Gains and Losses of Gender–Race/

Ethnicity Groups (Demography, 2015); The extent of occupational

segregation in the US: Differences by race, ethnicity, and gender

(Society for the Study of Economic Inequity, 2010); and Racism

and the Economy: Focus on Employment (Federal Reserve Bank of

Atlanta, 2020.)

35 Community Health Worker National Workforce Survey (U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services, 2007.)

36 Demographic data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau American

Community Survey 5-year estimates (2016-2020.)

37 The New Landscape of Digital Literacy (National Skills Coalition,

2020.)

38 Applying a Racial Equity Lens to Digital Literacy (National Skills

Coalition, 2020.)

39 Multiple factors combine to create these challenges. For example,

Black and Latino workers are less likely to have bachelor’s degrees,

and employers invest 58 percent of their upskilling dollars in work-

ers at that educational level, compared to just 17 percent of training

dollars provided to workers with high school diplomas or less. See

Training: The Role of Employer-Provided Training in the American

Postsecondary Education and Training System (Georgetown

University Center on Education and the Workforce, 2015). For

more on related issues, see Applying a Racial Equity Lens to

Digital Literacy (National Skills Coalition, 2020) and The Roadmap

to Racial Equity: An Imperative for Workforce Development

Advocates (National Skills Coalition, 2019.)

40 For an example of the disproportionate headwinds faced by entre-

preneurs of color, see: “Which small businesses are most vulnera-

ble to COVID-19—and when” (McKinsey & Company, June 18, 2020.)

41 Earlier research conducted by National Skills Coalition (The New

Landscape of Digital Literacy, 2020) found that fully 31 percent

of employed U.S. adults had few or no foundational digital skills.

Workers without digital skills had lower incomes and less formal

education compared to peers with stronger digital skills. Because

this data was drawn from the Survey of Adult Skills (also known

as the PIAAC), it reﬂects a direct, actual test of workers’ skills, not

merely a self-reported survey or other indirect measure. Additional

informal research conducted since the pandemic — including qual-

itative interviews with employers as well as direct assessment of

incumbent workers using the Northstar Digital Literacy Assessment

— indicates that the 31 percent number may even be conservative.

Workers reported spending signiﬁcant time and effort covering for

and compensating for their digital skill gaps.

42 It is important to note that correlation is not causation. Simply

acquiring a digital skill is not a guarantee that a worker will be able

to move into a better-paying job. However, research indicates that

in general, workers with greater skills are indeed able to command

more opportunities in the labor market. In addition, earlier research

has shown that the U.S. generally has stronger returns to foun-

dational skills than other developed countries. Returns to Skills

Around the World: Evidence from the PIAAC. (Hoover Institution,

2013.)

43 Median wage of $17.62 an hour for jobs with no digital skills com-

pared to $21.64 an hour for jobs requiring a deﬁnitely digital skill.

Calculation assumes full-time, year-round employment of 40 hours

a week, 50 weeks a year.

44 All data in this section comes from the American Community

Survey 2016-2020 ﬁve-year estimates.

45 NSC’s research found that between one-ﬁfth and one-third of

people with few or no foundational digital skills are nevertheless

supervising other workers. See: The New Landscape of Digital

Literacy (National Skills Coalition, 2020.)

46 Frequently Asked Questions (U.S. Small Business Administration,

October 2020.)

47 Funding Resilience (National Skills Coalition, 2021.)

48 “How to improve the engagement and retention of young hourly

workers,” Kimberly Gilsdorf et al. (Harvard Business Review,

December 6, 2017.)

49 Roberts, Pasha. “The CFO and CHRO Guide to Employee Attrition.”

Workforce Solutions Review 6, no. 1 (January 2015): 8–10.

50 In the Lightcast dataset used for this analysis, jobs that require no

digital skills had an average median hourly wage of $17.62, com-

pared to $21.64 for jobs that require one deﬁnitely digital skill.

51 Feenberg, Daniel Richard, and Elizabeth Coutts, An Introduction

to the TAXSIM Model, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

vol 12 no 1, Winter 1993, pages 189-194. Shane Orr (2022). usincom-

etaxes: Calculate Federal and State Income Taxes in the United

States. R package version 0.5.4. https://cran.r-project.org/

package=usincometaxes

52 Ibid. Note also: Tax liabilities are estimated based on rule year 2022.

Federal tax liabilities represent total taxes minus applicable tax

credits for a household (Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax

Credit).

53 The Roadmap to Racial Equity: An Imperative for Workforce

Development Advocates (National Skills Coalition, 2019.)

54 Learn more about industry sector partnerships in the Sector

Partnerships Policy Toolkit (National Skills Coalition, 2015) and on

the NSC website.

55 The Roadmap to Racial Equity: An Imperative for Workforce

Development Advocates (National Skills Coalition, 2019.)

56 For example, see, Expanding Digital Inclusion via the Bipartisan

Infrastructure Law (National Skills Coalition, 2022.)

57 Funding Resilience (National Skills Coalition, 2021.)

20 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 21

22 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 23

OVERVIEW

The national data presented in this report has powerful implications for state ofﬁcials and workforce and

education advocates. In this appendix, NSC and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta have included two charts

that illustrate the demand for digital skills by state, using the same Lightcast data set that was used in our

full report.

However, because the ﬁfty states vary signiﬁcantly in factors such as the economic mix of their industries

and the demographic makeup of their workforce, state stakeholders may ﬁnd it helpful to juxtapose these

national ﬁndings with additional, more state-speciﬁc analysis.

State leaders have a wealth of resources they can call upon to carry out such analyses, including Labor

Market Information (LMI) agencies, labor departments, and state workforce development boards. Nonproﬁt

policy advocacy organizations, universities, and research institutes may also have expertise and interest in

conducting such analyses.

To illustrate how states might go about this, NSC and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta have collaborated

to produce sample proﬁles for two states — North Carolina and Illinois — that are included in this appendix.

These state proﬁles can serve multiple purposes. In particular, they can:

■

Help states identify where to target digital skill-building investments. The bipartisan infrastructure

law passed by Congress in 2021 included major new investments for states via the Digital Equity Act,

which provides $2.75 billion in federal funding to support digital inclusion programs. As states develop the

required Digital Equity Plans that will form the roadmap for these investments, this data can help inform

their efforts.

■

Help states identify where more information or research is needed. State leaders can use this data as

a starting point for discovering more about particular industries’ need for technologically skilled workers,

and how they might target upskilling resources to remedy inequities among demographic groups.

GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR STATES TO CONSIDER

As states are analyzing this data to address digital skills needs and implement new digital equity investments,

there are some questions that can help to frame their analysis. In particular, policymakers and advocates

may wish to consider:

■

What particular barriers do speciﬁc demographic groups of workers (including those deﬁned as “covered

populations” in the Digital Equity Act) face in your state?

■

How might investments inadvertently exacerbate inequities facing these workers? How might investments

be better targeted to avoid worsening (and instead to improve) inequities?

■

What non-public data on digital access or skills are available to inform state decision making? (For exam-

ple, does the state collect information on whether Unemployment Insurance claimants access the system

via telephone versus the internet?)

■

How can this data be leveraged to better illuminate challenges and opportunities?

APPENDIX:

SELECTED STATE PROFILES

22 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 23

DIGITAL SKILL DEMANDS ACROSS STATES

The demand for digital skills varies somewhat by state. As illustrated in Figure 1, job postings across all states

and territories show high demand for workers with likely digital skills, ranging from Montana at 88 percent

to the District of Columbia at 95 percent. There are greater differences among the subset of job postings

requiring a deﬁnitely digital skill, from a low of 39 percent of job postings in Indiana to a high of 66 percent

in D.C.

FIGURE 1: Demand for digital skills by state/territory, by percent of jobs requiring a likely digital skill

State/Territory

Percent of

job postings

including a

likely digital

skill

Percent of

job postings

including a

definitely

digital skill

District of Columbia 95% 66%

Puerto Rico 94% 53%

Hawaii 93% 47%

Alaska 93% 47%

Massachusetts 92% 51%

Maryland 92% 51%

Wyoming 92% 47%

New York 92% 52%

Virginia 92% 53%

New Mexico 92% 45%

Connecticut 91% 46%

Washington 91% 49%

California 91% 51%

Texas 91% 49%

Delaware 91% 48%

Utah 91% 51%

Colorado 91% 47%

West Virginia 91% 42%

Arizona 91% 47%

South Dakota 91% 42%

North Dakota 91% 44%

North Carolina 91% 46%

South Carolina 91% 42%

Minnesota 91% 48%

Louisiana 90% 41%

New Hampshire 90% 43%

State/Territory

Percent of

job postings

including a

likely digital

skill

Percent of

job postings

including a

definitely

digital skill

New Jersey 90% 49%

Pennsylvania 90% 45%

Illinois 90% 47%

Kansas 90% 45%

Rhode Island 90% 48%

Missouri 90% 46%

Georgia 90% 48%

Oregon 90% 47%

Nevada 90% 45%

Tennessee 90% 43%

Nebraska 90% 45%

Mississippi 90% 41%

Florida 90% 44%

Maine 90% 44%

Oklahoma 90% 45%

Kentucky 90% 42%

Iowa 90% 43%

Idaho 90% 43%

Alabama 90% 41%

Vermont 89% 42%

Michigan 89% 45%

Ohio 89% 44%

Indiana 89% 39%

Wisconsin 89% 42%

Arkansas 89% 42%

Montana 88% 48%

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of Lightcast data.

24 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 25

NORTH CAROLINA

THE BIG PICTURE: UNDERSTANDING THE DEMAND FOR DIGITAL SKILLS

North Carolina is one of the larger southern states by both population and economic activity. There are

about 10.6 million people in North Carolina, and its GDP

was $660 billion in 2021. The median household

income

is about $57,000. White, Black, and American Indian and Alaska Native people are overrepresented

in the state compared to national averages, while Latinos and Asian American and Paciﬁc Islanders are

underrepresented.

North Carolina has strong demand for workers with technology skills. In the Lightcast dataset of 2021 job

postings used for this analysis,

there were almost 1.5 million postings for jobs located in the state. Among

those job ads, 670,000, or 46 percent, required at least one deﬁnitely digital skill, and 91 percent required a

deﬁnitely or likely digital skill. (These numbers are consistent with the national averages of 47 percent and

92 percent, respectively.)

ZOOMING IN: DIGITAL SKILL DEMANDS DIFFER BY INDUSTRY

Perhaps unsurprisingly, foundational skills such as spreadsheets, data entry, typing, and “basic internet

skills” are widely required across all industries in North Carolina. But when it comes to more sophisticated

skills, there are notable differences by sectors. For example, many job postings in the real estate industry

require familiarity with Yardi software, while a surprisingly high number of ads in the retail trade sector

seek people with robotics expertise. In manufacturing, employers are looking for workers with Enterprise

Resource Planning (ERP) software skills, while in accommodation and food services, Lotus Domino is in

frequent demand. In the utility sector, Global Positioning System (GPS) and SCADA (supervisory control and

data acquisition) system skills are crucial.

Knowing which digital skills are broadly in demand throughout an industry sector — or are transferrable

across different industries — can help stakeholders to make wise decisions about where to invest time and

resources. State policymakers and workforce and education advocates can stress-test workforce program

designs against on-the-ground data from employers and job postings to ensure a clear connection between

training programs’ focus and the skills workers will need on the job.

The Lightcast dataset also reveals some occupations where demand in North Carolina is especially acute.

The roles highlighted in Figure 2 do not require a bachelor’s degree, and therefore could be valuable

opportunities for workers with more limited education who are seeking to build their digital skills and obtain

higher-wage employment.

1 Gross Domestic Product: All Industry Total in North Carolina, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, retrieved from FRED, Federal

Reserve Bank of St. Louis (2022)

2 QuickFacts: North Carolina, U.S. Census Bureau (2022)

3 For more information on this dataset, see the full report: Closing the Digital Skill Divide: The Payoff for Workers, Business, and the

Economy.

24 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 25

FIGURE 2: Top sub-baccalaureate occupations in North Carolina with high demand for digital skills

(2021)

Occupation

Total job

postings

Subset of

job postings

requesting

definitely

digital skills

Percent of

job postings

requiring

definitely

digital skills

Software Developer / Engineer 1,413 1,335 94%

Computer Support Specialist 2,825 2,626 93%

Bookkeeper / Accounting Clerk 3,754 3,294 88%

Human Resources / Labor Relations Specialist 1,558 1,329 85%

Radiologic Technician / Technologist 1,018 865 85%

Personal Banker / Banking Sales Staff 2,340 1,968 84%

Ofﬁce / Administrative Assistant 11,204 9,272 83%

Loan Ofﬁcer 1,075 866 81%

Paralegal / Legal Assistant 1,004 806 80%

Security Ofﬁcer 10,136 8,067 80%

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of Lightcast data.

Note: Analysis limited to occupations that Lightcast shows as requiring a high school diploma/equivalent or an associate degree.

Occupations that had fewer than 1,000 total job posts in the 2021 Lightcast dataset were omitted.

Consistent with national ﬁndings, these in-demand North Carolina jobs typically require both foundational and

industry-speciﬁc digital skills. For example, both Microsoft Excel (a foundational skill) and the more specialized

accounting software QuickBooks are frequently listed in job ads for bookkeeper/accounting clerk positions.

In job postings for security ofﬁcers, basic “computer literacy” is the most-requested skill by far. But these job

ads also call for a range of more sophisticated skills, from surveillance system monitoring to IBM Cloud to

Microsoft Azure.

Digital skills in real life: What skills look like on the job

Knowing how digital skills are showing up in the real world can help state leaders and other stakeholders to

connect the dots between workforce and education investments, talent development pipelines, and business

vitality. Below, selected major North Carolina industry sectors are highlighted with examples.

26 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 27

Manufacturing

Nearly 650,000 North Carolinians work in the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing workers in the state

are disproportionately likely to be Black, Latino, or Asian compared to the overall workforce in North

Carolina. Manufacturing workers are also more likely to have limited educational attainment of a high

school diploma (or less), more likely to live in rural areas, and to have limited proﬁciency in English.

While roles such as CNC operator or Programmable Logic Control (PLC) technician have long required

some degree of digital skills, the transformation to Industry 4.0

is driving increased digital adoption

in companies large and small. Manufacturing companies today are increasingly seeking workers with

expertise in areas as diverse as robotics, AutoCAD, Human-Machine Interface, data analysis, and the SQL

programming language.

One recent survey showed that the percentage of advanced manufacturing companies adopting

Industry 4.0 technologies doubled between 2020 and 2021,

a rapid rate of increase that coincided with

the beginning of the Covid pandemic. In particular, the number of companies using 3D printing tech-

nology grew from 24 percent to 39 percent, and the number using collaborative robots grew from 6

percent to 22 percent.

Construction

Construction is a major industry in the state, employing more than 375,000 people. Construction workers

in the state are disproportionately likely to be Latino or American Indian or Alaska Native when com-

pared to the overall workforce in North Carolina. Construction workers also more likely to have limited

educational attainment of a high school diploma (or less), more likely to live in rural areas, and to have

limited proﬁciency in English.

A recent national survey of construction industry leaders found that 91 percent reported using their

smartphones daily for work purposes. Sixty-one percent said they used at least three different construc-

tion apps — such as Procore or Bluebeam Revu — for tasks such as daily reporting, safety management,

Building Information Modeling (BIM) ﬁle viewing, and tool tracking.

An interview conducted by NSC with a construction company executive in a large southern state illus-

trates how even frontline workers’ jobs have changed to require more digital skills. “Over the past few

years, almost all of our [general contractor] customers have shifted to using digital blueprints,” explains

the executive. “If we as the subcontractor notice a problem on the building site, we have to submit a

Request for Information (RFI) to the general contractor to ask about the conﬂict.” Workers have to be

able to spot a problem on site, take a photo, and immediately submit an RFI.

The shift to digital blueprints caused a cascade effect, says the executive. “We quickly realized that it

meant that our frontline workers needed to have iPads and e-mail access so they could communicate

with the general contractors.” It was a substantial shift, especially given that many of the company’s

frontline workers are navigating English-language software programs without necessarily being ﬂuent in

English themselves and are often working on far-ﬂung job sites with spotty or no internet access.

4 FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org.

5 For more information, see https://www.sap.com/insights/what-is-industry-4-0.htm

6 For more information, see: https://www.conexusindiana.com/2022/01/

new-study-tech-adoption-among-indiana-advanced-manufacturers-more-than-doubles-from-2020-to-2021/

7 FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org.

8 Construction Technology Report, 10th edition. (JB Knowledge, 2021.)

26 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 27

Healthcare

More than 720,000 workers in North Carolina are employed in the healthcare sector. Compared to the

overall North Carolina workforce, healthcare workers are disproportionately Black, and they are also

more likely to be women and to have college degrees.

While electronic medical records have been a feature of the landscape for more than a decade, the pan-

demic kicked other aspects of the industry’s digital transformation into high gear. Interviews and previous

research conducted by NSC have highlighted some common digital skill demands on the job. For example,

home health workers in the ﬁeld often use tablet computers to track their hours, log patient vital signs,

and communicate with higher level medical specialists about patient care.

At health clinics, reception desk workers increasingly have the responsibility of assisting patients in

installing, using, and troubleshooting telehealth services. In hospitals and other institutional settings,

workers in non-clinical jobs have had to adapt to more digitally driven processes in procurement and

compliance.

PUTTING THIS DATA TO WORK: RESOURCES FOR

STATE DIGITAL EQUITY PLANNING

As noted above, states are now engaged in their federally required development of 5-year Digital Equity Act

plans and 5-year Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Action Plans.

State Digital Equity Plans must describe how states will close the digital skill divide for the following

populations:

■

Low-income individuals;

■

Aging individuals;

■

Veterans;

■

Individuals with disabilities;

■

Individuals with English language barriers;

■

Individuals with limited literacy skills;

■

People of color;

■

Individuals living in rural areas; and

■

Individuals currently incarcerated (in non-federal correctional facilities).

In this section, we highlight data sources that states can use to better understand each population. By

juxtaposing this Census Bureau American Community Survey with our Lightcast ﬁndings, states can better

identify where to focus their digital skill-building investments.

Low-income individuals

As described in the full Closing the Digital Skill Divide report, low-income individuals face signiﬁcant chal-

lenges in building their digital skills and are disproportionately likely to need such skills.

Fifteen percent of North Carolinians aged sixteen to sixty-four live in households that are at or below 150

percent of the poverty line. While that number is already high, it’s even higher for the subset of individuals

working

in certain industries. For example, it rises to 29 percent for workers in the accommodation and food

services sector, 25 percent for workers in the administrative and support and waste management and reme-

diation services, and 20 percent for individuals in the construction sector.

9 FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org.

10 In our industry analyses, we’ve excluded workers who are active military or whose last industry was in the military. For individuals

who are not currently working, the data reﬂect the industry in which they were most recently employed.

28 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 29

29%

27%

25%

20%

15%

14%

13%

11%

Accommodation and Food Services

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting

Admin and Support and Waste Management

Other Services (except Public Administration)

Construction

Retail Trade

North Carolina Average (all industries)

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

Manufacturing

Transportation and Warehousing

Health Care and Social Assistance

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

Wholesale Trade

Educational Services

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

Information

Management of Companies and Enterprises

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Public Administration

Utilities

Finance and Insurance

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

This data is particularly notable because there is strong demand for workers with digital skills in these indus-

tries, which signals that North Carolina has two reasons to invest in these workers: First, to support their

individual economic mobility and meet requirements under the Digital Equity Act, and second, to ensure that

the the state workforce is equipped to meet the growing demand for technological skills in these industries.

Nationwide, 23 percent of accommodation and food services, 49 percent of administrative and support and

waste management, and 39 percent of construction job postings required at least one deﬁnitely digital skill.

FIGURE 3: Percent of North Carolinians aged 16-64 living in low income households, by Industry of

Employment

28 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 29

Aging individuals

In general, aging populations have slightly lower levels of digital skills than younger populations,

so they

should be considered when developing community-centric programs. Focusing on digital skills during tra-

ditional years of education (K-12 and young adulthood) is insufﬁcient. Adult workers need timely, relevant

education and workforce development opportunities at mid-career and later in their working years, as their

jobs continue to change beneath their feet.

In North Carolina, 9 percent of working age individuals are aged between sixty and sixty-four. The agriculture,

forestry, ﬁshing and hunting sector and the utilities industry have disproportionate numbers of older work-

ers. Older workers are also more likely to live in non-metro or mixed (metro and non-metro) areas.

FIGURE 4: Percent of North Carolinians aged 60-64, by Industry of Employment

Industry Percent of working-age

adults 60 or above

Utilities 16%

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 12%

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 11%

Public Administration 11%

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting 11%

Manufacturing 11%

Educational Services 11%

Transportation and Warehousing 10%

Management of Companies and Enterprises 10%

Other Services (except Public Administration) 10%

Wholesale Trade 10%

Health Care and Social Assistance 9%

Information 9%

Professional, Scientiﬁc, and Technical Services 9%

North Carolina Average (all industries) 9%

Finance and Insurance 8%

Retail Trade 8%

Construction 7%

Admin and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 7%

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 7%

Accommodation and Food Services 3%

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

11 The New Landscape of Digital Literacy (National Skills Coalition, 2020.)

12 The Census Bureau’s ACS data does not tell us whether someone resides in a rural or an urban area. However, it does provide infor-

mation on whether someone is located in a metropolitan area, not in a metro area, or if their approximate location is “on the fence”

(i.e., mixed).

30 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 31

Veterans

Veterans are a critical group for states to consider when developing their Digital Equity Plans. Some veterans

have acquired technology skills through their former military jobs, while others need opportunities to upskill

or reskill into civilian industries that require such skills.

There are roughly 300,000 veterans

aged sixteen to sixty-four living in North Carolina. Overall, military veter-

ans comprise 5 percent of working-age North Carolinians. However, some industries have substantially greater

concentrations. For example, roughly 18 percent of public administration workers are veterans, dramatically

higher than any other industry. The transportation and warehousing and the utilities sectors also have a dispro-

portionately high percentage of veterans, at 11 percent and 10 percent of their workforce, respectively.

13 For this analysis, veterans were included only if they are currently in or have worked in industries outside of the military after their

service was completed.

18%

11%

10%

Public Administration

Transportation and Warehousing

Utilities

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

Information

Wholesale Trade

Manufacturing

Admin and Support and Waste Management

Construction

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

North Carolina Average (all industries)

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

Retail Trade

Management of Companies and Enterprises

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting

Other Services (except Public Administration)

Finance and Insurance

Health Care and Social Assistance

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

Educational Services

Accommodation and Food Services

FIGURE 5: Percent of veterans among all North Carolina workers 16-64, by Industry of Employment

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

30 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 31

Individuals with disabilities

While often thought of as a group that lacks digital skills, individuals living with one or more disabilities are

often on the cutting edge of technology adoption through necessity. For example, people with visual disabili-

ties have long been accustomed to using screen readers, voice-to-text software, and other devices to enable

them to participate equitably in the online world. People with disabilities have also been leaders in developing

new technologies that are widely used by people of all backgrounds, such as automatic captioning for online

videos.

However, workers with disabilities also face barriers in seeking and maintaining employment. States seeking

to close equity gaps among this population should work directly with disability advocates to better under-

stand the unique capabilities and particular challenges facing these workers.

The Census Bureau American Community Survey collects disability data across ﬁve categories, including

individuals who face:

■

Cognitive difﬁculty: An individual who has difﬁculty remembering, concentrating, or making decisions

because of a physical, mental, or emotional problem.

■

Ambulatory difﬁculty: An individual who has serious difﬁculty walking or climbing stairs.

■

Independent living difﬁculty: An individual who has difﬁculty doing errands alone such as visiting a

doctor’s ofﬁce or shopping because of a physical, mental, or emotional problem.

■

Self-care difﬁculty: An individual having difﬁculty bathing or dressing.

■

Vision or hearing difﬁculty: An individual who has a condition such as blindness, deafness, or a severe

vision or hearing impairment.

Overall, 7 percent of working-age North Carolina residents have a disability. As shown in Figure 6, the admin

and support and waste management and remediation services industry, the mining, quarrying, and oil and

gas extraction industry, and retail trade industry have a higher-than-average percentage of workers with

disabilities.

14 For example, see: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124501330 and https://news.microsoft.com/features/

people-disabilities-using-improving-accessible-technology/

32 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 33

FIGURE 6: Percent of North Carolinians aged 16-64 living with a disability, by Industry of Employment

Industry Percent with a disability

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 10%

Admin and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 10%

Retail Trade 9%

Transportation and Warehousing 8%

Other Services (except Public Administration) 8%

Construction 8%

Accommodation and Food Services 8%

Public Administration 8%

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting 8%

Manufacturing 7%

North Carolina Average (all industries) 7%

Health Care and Social Assistance 7%

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 7%

Information 6%

Wholesale Trade 6%

Management of Companies and Enterprises 6%

Utilities 6%

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 6%

Educational Services 6%

Professional, Scientiﬁc, and Technical Services 5%

Finance and Insurance 4%

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

32 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 33

Individuals with English language barriers

While some immigrants and adult English learners have robust digital skills, others need opportunities to

develop those skills. Overall, at the national level, immigrants and adult English learners are more likely to

lack digital skills, compared to white native-born Americans.

As states seek to identify effective tools to help

their constituents navigate and acquire digital skills, English language learning models that include strong

digital literacy components will be an important part of the solution.

In North Carolina, the agriculture, forestry, ﬁshing, and hunting; construction; and admin and support and

waste management industries have a disproportionate number of workers who have english language

barriers.

15 For more information on this topic, see NSC’s fact sheet on Applying a Racial Equity Lens to Digital Literacy: https://nationalskillsco-

alition.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Digital-Skills-Racial-Equity-Final.pdf.

16 For more information on this topic, see NSC’s Amplifying Impact report: https://nationalskillscoalition.org/wp-content/

uploads/2020/12/06-25-2020-NSC-Amplifying-Impact.pdf

21%

16%

10%

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting

Construction

Admin and Support and Waste Management

Manufacturing

Accommodation and Food Services

Other Services (except Public Administration)

North Carolina Average (all industries)

Wholesale Trade

Transportation and Warehousing

Retail Trade

Utilities

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

Information

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Educational Services

Finance and Insurance

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

Health Care and Social Assistance

Public Administration

Management of Companies and Enterprises

FIGURE 7: Percent of North Carolinians aged 16-64 with English language barriers, by Industry of

Employment

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

34 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 35

Individuals with limited literacy skills

Across North Carolina, thousands of workers with limited literacy skills are holding down jobs across many

different industries. Employed in retail shops and restaurants, hotels and hospitals, and manufacturing jobs,

among many others, these workers not only help fuel the country’s economy — they keep daily life in America

humming smoothly along.

Due in large measure to structural forces in American society, digital skill needs are closely correlated to

limited literacy skills.

As states identify tools to help these constituents and mitigate digital equity needs, it’s

important that they understand the particular challenges facing these workers.

In the full Closing the Digital Skill Divide report, our ﬁndings point to the need to invest in workers with limited

formal education. Policymakers should be clear that these workers, who are often employed in entry-level jobs,

need the same access to digital skill-building opportunities that their more educated peers expect and receive.

While the ACS does not speciﬁcally gather data on literacy skills, it does include educational attainment data,

so we’ve used educational attainment of lower than high school as a proxy. In North Carolina, the construc-

tion; agriculture, forestry, ﬁshing and hunting; and accommodation and food services industries have a dispro-

portionate number of workers with limited literacy skills.

FIGURE 8: Percent of North Carolinians aged 16-64 with limited literacy skills, by industry of

employment

Industry

Percent with literacy barriers

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting

29%

Construction

25%

Accommodation and Food Services

23%

Admin and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services

17%

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

15%

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

14%

Manufacturing

12%

Other Services (except Public Administration)

11%

Retail Trade

10%

North Carolina Average (all industries)

10%

Wholesale Trade

Transportation and Warehousing

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

Utilities

Health Care and Social Assistance

Information

Management of Companies and Enterprises

Educational Services

Public Administration

Professional, Scientiﬁc, and Technical Services

Finance and Insurance

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

17 The New Landscape of Digital Literacy (National Skills Coalition, 2020) and Foundational Skills in the Service Sector (National Skills

Coalition, 2018).

34 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 35

People of color

While many workers facing a digital skill divide are white, people of color are disproportionately affected.

The ripple effects of historical policies and structural racism continue to contribute to modern-day inequities

in digital skills and access to them. From digital redlining that limits the availability of high-speed internet in

some communities, to under-funded educational institutions unable to provide their students with robust

digital technologies for learning, barriers to access often limit workers’ ability to build digital skills and busi-

nesses’ ability to advance into the digital age. These wide-ranging effects emphasize the vital role of public

policy in remedying inequities caused by prior policies.

As states identify ways to target their Digital Equity Act investments to reduce racial inequities, understand-

ing the industries with high concentrations of workers of color can point the way.

In North Carolina, Black workers (who represent 21% of working-age state residents overall) are dispropor-

tionately concentrated in the transportation and warehousing (34%), admin and support and waste manage-

ment and remediation services (27%), and manufacturing (23%) industries.

Workers of Hispanic or Latino origin (who represent 9% of working-age state residents) are disproportion-

ately concentrated in the agriculture, forestry, ﬁshing and hunting (27%), construction (25%), and accommo-

dation and food services (14%) industries.

Asian American and Paciﬁc Islander workers (who represent 3% of working-age state residents) are dispro-

portionately concentrated in the professional, scientiﬁc, and technical services (8%), management of compa-

nies and enterprises (6%), and the other services except public administration (6%) industries.

American Indian or Alaska Native people (who represent 0.9% of working-age state residents) are dispropor-

tionately concentrated in the public administration (1.5%), agriculture, forestry, ﬁshing and hunting (1.2%),

and construction (1.1%) industries.

When looking at the intersection of race and gender, Black women in North Carolina (who represent 12% of

working-age residents) are more likely to be in health care and social assistance (23% of health care work-

ers); Black men (10% of working-age state residents) in manufacturing (14%); Latinas (4% of working-age

state residents) in agriculture, forestry, ﬁshing and hunting (8%); and Latinos (5% of working-age state

residents) in construction (23%).

Asian women (2% of working-age state residents) are over-represented in the other services except public

administration (4%) industry sector; asian men (2% of working-age state residents) are more concentrated

in professional, scientiﬁc, and technical services (5%); American Indian or Alaska Native women (0.5% of

working-age state residents) in health care and social assistance (0.9%); and American Indian or Alaska

Native men (0.5% of working-age state residents) in construction (1.5%) sectors.

Notably, many of these industries are also ones that employ signiﬁcant numbers of other “covered popula-

tions”, making them particularly appealing areas for state policymakers to target.

Closing equity gaps can catapult both workers and businesses to greater economic success. As the data on

occupational segregation highlights, many marginalized workers are clustered in industries that have rap-

idly growing demand for technological skills. As a result, both workers themselves and the companies that

employ them can ﬂourish if given the opportunity for upskilling.

Individuals living in rural areas

Individuals in rural communities face compounded challenges — they are more likely to lack broadband inter-

net access due to their geographic location, and this lack of access then hampers their ability to get online

and build better digital skills by participating in educational and workforce opportunities. Tackling these

issues is crucial to ensure an even playing ﬁeld for individuals in rural areas.

18 For more information on this topic, see NSC’s fact sheet on Applying a Racial Equity Lens to Digital Literacy: https://nationalskillsco-

alition.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Digital-Skills-Racial-Equity-Final.pdf.

36 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 37

The Census Bureau American Community Survey does not tell us whether someone resides in a rural or an

urban area. However, it does provide information on whether someone is located in a metropolitan area, not

in a metro area, or if their approximate location is “on the fence” (i.e., mixed). In North Carolina, 75 percent of

American Indians or Alaska Natives live in non-metro or mixed areas, signiﬁcantly above the 28 percent aver-

age for North Carolina and the 19 percent average for the United States. In the industries that American Indian

and Alaska Native women and men are disproportionately in, public administration and construction, roughly

78 percent of the American Indians and Alaska Natives in those jobs reside in non-metro or mixed areas.

In North Carolina, the agriculture, forestry, ﬁshing and hunting; construction; and mining, quarrying, and oil and

gas extraction industries have disproportionate percentages of workers located in non-metro or mixed areas.

57%

53%

35%

33%

29%

28%

27%

26%

25%

23%

19%

18%

16%

15%

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

Public Administration

Construction

Manufacturing

Utilities

Health Care and Social Assistance

Retail Trade

Other Services (except Public Administration)

North Carolina Average (all industries)

Accommodation and Food Services

Educational Services

Admin and Support and Waste Management and…

Transportation and Warehousing

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

Wholesale Trade

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

Information

Management of Companies and Enterprises

Finance and Insurance

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

FIGURE 9: Percent of North Carolinians aged 16-64 that reside in non-metro or mixed areas,

by industry of employment

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

36 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 37

Individuals who are currently incarcerated

People who are incarcerated (in non-federal institutions) are another “covered population” under the

Digital Equity Act. These individuals face particular challenges in building digital skills while behind bars.

Correctional education programs may restrict or even prohibit the use of digital technology or internet

access, which puts justice-involved people at a disadvantage when reentering society.

The Sentencing Project, a nonproﬁt organization, found that in North Carolina, there are almost 50,000 peo-

ple incarcerated in prisons or jails.

The Sentencing Project also found that the Black imprisonment rate in

North Carolina is almost four times the white imprisonment rate. Removing technology and internet restric-

tions can allow individuals to prepare effectively for life and employment after release.

ILLINOIS

THE BIG PICTURE: UNDERSTANDING THE DEMAND FOR DIGITAL SKILLS

Illinois is the largest midwestern state by population and economic activity. There are about 12.7 million

people in Illinois, and its GDP

was about $950 billion in 2021. The median household income

in the state is

about $68,500. The race and ethnicity of Illinois residents closely align with the national population; roughly

62 percent of working age people are white, 13 percent are Black, 17 percent are Latinx, 6 percent are Asian

American or Paciﬁc Islander, and less than 1 percent are American Indian or Alaska Native.

Illinois has strong demand for workers with technology skills. In the Lightcast dataset of 2021 job postings

used for this analysis,

there were more than 1.7 million postings for jobs located in the state. Among those

job ads, 812,000 or 47 percent, required at least one deﬁnitely digital skill, and 90 percent required a

deﬁnitely or likely digital skill. Per this data, employers in Illinois are close to the national averages in their

need for technologically skilled workers.

ZOOMING IN: DIGITAL SKILL DEMANDS DIFFER BY INDUSTRY

Foundational skills such as spreadsheets, data entry, word processing, and basic “computer literacy” are

widely required across all industries in Illinois. But when it comes to more sophisticated skills, there are nota-

ble differences by sectors. For example, many Illinois job postings in the manufacturing industry require famil-

iarity with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, while in the retail sector there is strong demand for

e-commerce, point of sale systems, and robotics expertise. In ﬁnance and insurance, many employers are

looking for workers with Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS) software skills, while in accommo-

dation and food services, familiarity with Delphi software is in regular demand. In the health care and social

assistance sector, experience with electronic health records is crucial.

19 U.S. Criminal Justice Data, The Sentencing Project (2022)

20 Building the Technology Ecosystem for Correctional Education: Brief and Discussion Guide https://lincs.ed.gov/sites/default/ﬁles/

tech-ecosystem-correctional-ed.pdf, (U.S. Department of Education, 2022.)

21 Gross Domestic Product: All Industry Total in Illinois, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank

of St. Louis (2022)

22 QuickFacts: Illinois, U.S. Census Bureau (2022)

23 For more information on this dataset, see the full report: Closing the Digital Skill Divide: The Payoff for Workers, Business, and the

Economy.

38 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 39

Knowing which digital skills are broadly in demand throughout an industry sector — or are transferrable

across different industries — can help stakeholders to make wise decisions about where to invest time and

resources. State policymakers and workforce and education advocates can stress-test workforce program

designs against on-the-ground data from employers and job postings to ensure a clear connection between

training programs’ focus and the skills workers will need on the job.

The Lightcast dataset also reveals some occupations where demand in Illinois is especially acute. The

roles highlighted in Figure 10 do not require a bachelor’s degree, and therefore could be valuable oppor-

tunities for workers with more limited education who are seeking to build their digital skills and obtain

higher-wage employment.

Consistent with national ﬁndings, these in-demand Illinois jobs typically require both foundational and indus-

try-speciﬁc digital skills. For example, both Microsoft Excel (a foundational skill) and the more specialized

accounting software QuickBooks are frequently listed in job ads for bookkeeper/accounting clerk positions.

In job postings for ofﬁce or administrative assistants, basic “typing” is a highly requested skill. But these job ads

also call for a range of more sophisticated skills, from SAP to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to Salesforce.

FIGURE 10: Top Sub-Baccalaureate occupations in Illinois with high demand for digital skills (2021)

Occupation

Total job

postings in

Illinois (2021)

Subset of

job postings

requesting

definitely

digital skills

Percent of

job postings

requiring

definitely

digital skills

Data Entry Clerk 1,352 1,343 99%

Software Developer / Engineer 1,392 1,317 95%

Computer Support Specialist 2,945 2,781 94%

Bookkeeper / Accounting Clerk 4,962 4, 474 90%

Ofﬁce / Administrative Assistant 12,813 10,889 85%

Human Resources / Labor Relations Specialist 1,553 1,295 83%

Scheduler / Operations Coordinator 2,529 2,051 81%

Recruiter 1,989 1,584 80%

Insurance Sales Agent 1,668 1,291 77%

Radiologic Technician / Technologist 1,487 1,137 76%

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of Lightcast data.

Note: Occupations that had fewer than 1,000 total job posts in the 2021 Lightcast dataset were omitted.

38 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 39

Digital skills in real life: What skills look like on the job

Knowing how digital skills are showing up in the real world can help state leaders and other stakeholders to

connect the dots between workforce and education investments, talent development pipelines, and business

vitality. Below, selected major Illinois industry sectors are highlighted with examples.

Manufacturing

Nearly 800,000 Illinoisans work in the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing workers in Illinois are

disproportionately likely to be Latino compared to the overall workforce in the state. Manufacturing

workers are also more likely to have limited educational attainment — a high school diploma (or less) —

more likely to live in rural areas, and more likely to have limited proﬁciency in English.

While roles such as CNC operator or Programmable Logic Control (PLC) technician have long required

some degree of digital skills, the transformation to Industry 4.0 is driving increased digital adop-

tion in companies large and small. Manufacturing companies today are increasingly seeking workers

with expertise in areas as diverse as robotics, AutoCAD, Human-Machine Interface, Computer-Aided

Manufacturing (CAM), and customer relationship management (CRM) software.

One recent survey from a neighboring Midwestern state showed that the percentage of advanced

manufacturing companies adopting Industry 4.0 technologies doubled between 2020 and 2021,

a rapid

rate of increase that coincided with the beginning of the Covid pandemic. In particular, the number of

companies using 3D printing technology grew from 24 percent to 39 percent, and the number using

collaborative robots grew from 6 percent to 22 percent.

Retail

Retail is a major industry in Illinois, employing more than 750,000 people. Retail workers in the state

are disproportionately likely to be Latino or Black, compared to the overall workforce in Illinois. Retail

workers are also more likely to have limited educational attainment (that is, education short of a bache-

lor’s degree), and to be younger than the average worker.

Technology demands in this sector have been steadily growing over the past two decades. One recent

analysis found that the retail industry saw a sizeable jump from 2002 to 2016 in the amount of digital

skills and knowledge demanded of its workforce.

Roles within the retail industry require a wide variety

of digital skills. Examples include inventory clerks using customized smartphone apps to categorize and

process returned items; cosmetic company employees completing online learning modules to boost their

digital marketing expertise; and auto technicians using computerized diagnostic tools to tackle repair jobs.

Large retailers have led the way with an exceptionally rapid pace of technological change. For example,

global cosmetics giant L’Oreal has provided digital upskilling opportunities for 14,000 employees,

while

Walmart has rolled out a suite of digital apps that frontline workers are expected to use for activities

such as price changes, processing inventory, and more.

In Illinois, retailers frequently seek workers with foundational skills such as the Microsoft Ofﬁce suite,

as well as more specialized skills in e-commerce and virtual sales, Customer Relationship Management

(CRM) applications such as Salesforce, and SAS retail analytics software.

24 FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org.

25 See: https://www.conexusindiana.com/2022/01/new-study-tech-adoption-among-indiana-advanced-manufacturers-more-than-

doubles-from-2020-to-2021/

26 FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org.

27 https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/mpp_2017nov15_digitalization_full_report.pdf

28 Learn more: https://www.loreal-ﬁnance.com/en/annual-report-2016/digital-culture

29 Learn more: https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/innovation/20180919/

walmarts-custom-apps-are-enabling-a-workplace-refresh

40 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 41

Healthcare

More than 900,000 workers in Illinois are employed in the healthcare sector. Compared to the overall

Illinois workforce, healthcare workers are disproportionately likely to be Black or Asian American and

Paciﬁc Islander, and they are also more likely to be women and to have college degrees.

While electronic medical records have been common in the healthcare ﬁeld for more than a decade, the

pandemic greatly accelerated other aspects of digital transformation across the industry. Interviews

conducted by NSC have documented some common digital skill demands on the job. For example, com-

munity health workers and personal care aides often use smartphones or tablet computers to capture

patient information or record their own working hours for payroll purposes. These easy-to-carry tools

are especially important for healthcare workers who work in the ﬁeld and do not have the desk space or

permanent setup for larger computer equipment that their peers working in hospitals or nursing homes

may have.

In clinics and medical ofﬁces, reception-desk workers are increasingly responsible for assisting patients

in installing, using, and troubleshooting telehealth services. And even healthcare sector workers in

non-clinical jobs have had to adapt to more digitally driven processes in procurement and compliance.

PUTTING THIS DATA TO WORK:

RESOURCES FOR STATE DIGITAL EQUITY PLANNING

As noted above, states are now engaged in their federally required development of 5-year Digital Equity Act

plans and 5-year Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Action Plans.

State Digital Equity Plans must describe how states will close the digital skill divide for the following

populations:

■

Low-income individuals;

■

Aging individuals;

■

Veterans;

■

Individuals with disabilities;

■

Individuals with English language barriers;

■

Individuals with limited literacy skills;

■

People of color;

■

Individuals living in rural areas; and

■

Individuals currently incarcerated (in non-federal correctional facilities).

In this section, we highlight data sources that states can use to better understand each population. By

juxtaposing this Census Bureau American Community Survey with our Lightcast ﬁndings, states can better

identify where to focus their digital skill-building investments.

Low-income individuals

As described in the full Closing the Digital Skill Divide report, low income individuals face signiﬁcant chal-

lenges in building their digital skills and are disproportionately likely

to lack such skills.

Twelve percent of Illinoisans live in households that are at or below 150 percent of the poverty line. That

ﬁgure is even higher for the subset of individuals working

in certain industries. For example, it rises to 22

percent for workers in the accommodation and food services sector, 21 percent for workers in the

30 FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org.

31 For individuals who are not currently working, the data reﬂect the industry in which they were most recently employed.

40 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 41

22%

21%

16%

14%

13%

12%

10%

Accommodation and Food Services

Admin and Support and Waste Management and…

Other Services (except Public Administration)

Retail Trade

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting

Construction

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

Transportation and Warehousing

Health Care and Social Assistance

Illinois Average (all industries)

Manufacturing

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

Educational Services

Wholesale Trade

Information

Public Administration

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Public Administration

Utilities

Finance and Insurance

FIGURE 11: Percent of Illinoisans aged 16-64 living in low income households, by Industry of

Employment

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

administrative and support and waste management and remediation services, and 13 percent for individuals

in the construction sector.

This data is particularly notable because there is strong demand for workers with digital skills in these

industries: Nationwide, 23 percent of accommodation and food services, 49 percent of administrative

and support and waste management, and 39 percent of construction job postings required at least one

deﬁnitely digital skill.

This demand data helps illustrate that Illinois has multiple reasons to invest in these workers: To support

their individual economic mobility; to meet federal Digital Equity Act requirements for reducing inequities;

and ﬁnally, to ensure that Illinois businesses in key industries have access to a competitive talent pool that is

equipped with necessary technological skills.

42 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 43

Aging individuals

In general, aging populations have slightly lower levels of digital skills than younger populations,

so they

should also be considered when developing community-centric programs. Focusing on digital skills solely

during K-12 education is insufﬁcient. Adult workers need timely, relevant education and workforce devel-

opment opportunities at mid career and even later in their working years, as their jobs continue to change

beneath their feet.

In Illinois, 9 percent of working age individuals are aged between sixty and sixty-four. The agriculture, forestry,

ﬁshing and hunting sector and the utilities industry have disproportionate numbers of older workers.

FIGURE 12: Percent of Illinoisans aged 60-64, by Industry of Employment

Industry % Working age adults 60 or above

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting 14%

Utilities 12%

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 12%

Public Administration 11%

Manufacturing 10%

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 10%

Wholesale Trade 10%

Health Care and Social Assistance 10%

Other Services (except Public Administration) 10%

Educational Services 9%

Transportation and Warehousing 9%

Information 9%

Construction 9%

Management of Companies and Enterprises 9%

Illinois Average (all industries) 9%

Finance and Insurance 9%

Admin and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 8%

Professional, Scientiﬁc, and Technical Services 8%

Retail Trade 7%

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 6%

Accommodation and Food Services 3%

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

32 The New Landscape of Digital Literacy (National Skills Coalition, 2020.)

42 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 43

Veterans

Veterans are a critical group for states to consider when developing their Digital Equity Plans. Some veterans

have acquired technology skills through their former military jobs, while others need opportunities to upskill

or reskill into civilian occupations that require such skills.

There are roughly 220,000 veterans

aged 16-64 living in Illinois. Overall, military veterans comprise 3

percent of working age Illinoisans. However, some industries have substantially greater concentrations.

For example, roughly 11 percent of public administration workers are veterans. The utilities and the mining,

quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sectors also have a disproportionately high percentage of veterans,

at 9 percent and 8 percent of their workforce, respectively.

33 For this analysis, veterans were only included if they are currently in or have worked in industries outside of the military after their

service was completed.

11%

Public Administration

Utilities

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

Transportation and Warehousing

Construction

Manufacturing

Wholesale Trade

Admin and Support and Waste Management and…

Illinois Average (all industries)

Information

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting

Other Services (except Public Administration)

Retail Trade

Health Care and Social Assistance

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

Finance and Insurance

Educational Services

Management of Companies and Enterprises

Accommodation and Food Services

FIGURE 13: Percent of veterans among all Illinois workers 16-64, by Industry of Employment

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

44 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 45

Individuals living with disabilities

While often thought of as a group that lacks digital skills, individuals living with one or more disabilities

are often on the cutting edge of technology adoption through necessity. For example, people with visual

disabilities have long been accustomed to using screen readers, voice-to-text software, and other devices

to enable them to participate equitably in the online world. People with disabilities have also been leaders

in developing new technologies that are widely used by people of all backgrounds, such as automatic

captioning for online videos.

However, workers with disabilities also face signiﬁcant barriers in seeking and maintaining employment.

States seeking to close equity gaps among this population should work directly with disability advocates to

better understand the unique capabilities and particular challenges facing these workers.

The Census Bureau American Community Survey collects disability data across ﬁve categories of individuals,

including those who face:

■

Cognitive difﬁculty: An individual that has difﬁculty remembering, concentrating, or making decisions

because of a physical, mental, or emotional problem.

■

Ambulatory difﬁculty: An individual that has serious difﬁculty walking or climbing stairs.

■

Independent living difﬁculty: An individual that has difﬁculty doing errands alone such as visiting a

doctor’s ofﬁce or shopping because of a physical, mental, or emotional problem.

■

Self-care difﬁculty: An individual having difﬁculty bathing or dressing.

■

Vision or hearing difﬁculty: Conditions that include blindness, deafness, or a severe vision or hearing

impairment.

Overall, 6 percent of working age Illinois residents have a disability. As shown in Figure 5, the admin and

support and waste management and remediation services industry; the mining, quarrying, and oil and

gas extraction industry; and retail trade industry have a higher-than-average percentage of workers with

disabilities.

34 For example, see: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124501330 and https://news.microsoft.com/features/

people-disabilities-using-improving-accessible-technology/

44 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 45

FIGURE 14: Percent of Illinoisans aged 16-64 living with a disability, by Industry of Employment

Industry Percent with

a disability

Admin and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 8%

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 7%

Public Administration 7%

Retail Trade 7%

Accommodation and Food Services 6%

Health Care and Social Assistance 6%

Manufacturing 6%

Transportation and Warehousing 6%

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting 6%

Utilities 6%

Construction 6%

Other Services (except Public Administration) 6%

Illinois Average (all industries) 6%

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 6%

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 6%

Wholesale Trade 5%

Management of Companies and Enterprises 5%

Information 5%

Educational Services 5%

Professional, Scientiﬁc, and Technical Services 4%

Finance and Insurance 3%

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

46 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 47

FIGURE 15: Percent of Illinoisans aged 16-64 with English language barriers, by Industry of

Employment

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

Individuals with English language barriers

While some immigrants and adult English learners have robust digital skills, others need opportunities to

develop those skills. Overall, at the national level, immigrants and adult English learners are more likely to

lack digital skills, compared to white native-born Americans.

As states seek to identify effective tools to help

their constituents navigate and acquire digital skills, English language learning models that include strong

digital literacy components will be an important part of the solution.

In Illinois, the admin and support and waste management and remediation services; construction; and

accommodation and food services industries have a disproportionate number of workers who have English

language barriers.

35 For more information on this topic, see NSC’s fact sheet on Applying a Racial Equity Lens to Digital Literacy: https://nationalskillsco-

alition.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Digital-Skills-Racial-Equity-Final.pdf.

36 For more information on this topic, see NSC’s Amplifying Impact report: https://nationalskillscoalition.org/wp-content/

uploads/2020/12/06-25-2020-NSC-Amplifying-Impact.pdf

18%

16%

14%

13%

11%

10%

Admin and Support and Waste Management

Manufacturing

Construction

Accommodation and Food Services

Other Services (except Public Administration)

Transportation and Warehousing

Wholesale Trade

Illinois Average (all industries)

Retail Trade

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting

Health Care and Social Assistance

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

Educational Services

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Information

Finance and Insurance

Utilities

Management of Companies and Enterprises

Public Administration

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

46 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 47

Individuals with limited literacy skills

Across Illinois, thousands of workers with limited literacy skills are holding down jobs across many different

industries. Employed in retail shops and restaurants, hotels and hospitals, and manufacturing jobs, among

many others, these workers not only help fuel the country’s economy — they keep daily life in America hum-

ming smoothly along.

Due in large measure to structural forces in American society, digital skill gaps are closely correlated to

limited literacy skills. As states identify tools to help these constituents and mitigate digital equity gaps, it’s

important that they understand the particular challenges facing these workers.

In the full Closing the Digital Skill Divide report, our ﬁndings point to the need to invest in workers with limited

formal education. Policymakers should be clear that these workers, who are often employed in entry-level jobs,

need the same access to digital skill-building opportunities that their more-educated peers expect and receive.

While the The Census Bureau American Community Survey does not speciﬁcally gather data on literacy

skills, it does include educational attainment data, so we’ve used educational attainment of lower than a high

school diploma as a proxy. In Illinois, the accommodation and food services; arts, entertainment, and recre-

ation; and manufacturing industries are among those with a disproportionate number of workers with this

limited educational attainment (and thus likely limited literacy skills

FIGURE 16: Percent of Illinoisans aged 16-64 with limited literacy skills, by Industry of Employment

Industry Percent with literacy barriers

Accommodation and Food Services 24%

Admin and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 18%

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 18%

Construction 16%

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting 14%

Manufacturing 13%

Other Services (except Public Administration) 11%

Retail Trade 10%

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 10%

Illinois Average (all industries) 9%

Wholesale Trade 9%

Transportation and Warehousing 9%

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 5%

Health Care and Social Assistance 4%

Information 4%

Educational Services 3%

Public Administration 3%

Utilities 2%

Management of Companies and Enterprises 2%

Professional, Scientiﬁc, and Technical Services 1%

Finance and Insurance 1%

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

37 The New Landscape of Digital Literacy (National Skills Coalition, 2020) and Foundational Skills in the Service Sector (National Skills

Coalition, 2018).

48 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 49

People of color

While many workers facing a digital skill divide are white, people of color are disproportionately affected.

The ripple effects of historical policies and structural racism continue to contribute to modern-day inequities

in digital skills and access to them. From digital redlining that limits the availability of high-speed internet in

some communities, to under-funded educational institutions unable to provide their students with robust

digital technologies for learning, barriers to access often limit workers’ ability to build digital skills and busi-

nesses’ ability to advance into the digital age. These wide-ranging effects emphasize the vital role of public

policy in remedying inequities caused by prior policies.

As states identify ways to target their Digital Equity Act investments to reduce racial inequities, understand-

ing which industries have especially high concentrations of workers of color can point the way.

In Illinois, Black workers (who represent 13% of working-age state residents overall) are disproportionately

concentrated in the transportation and warehousing (24%); admin and support and waste management and

remediation services (19%); and public administration (19%) industries.

Workers of Hispanic or Latino origin (who represent 17% of working-age state residents) are dispropor-

tionately concentrated in the admin and support and waste management and remediation services (29%);

accommodation and food services (28%); and manufacturing (24%) industries.

Asian American and Paciﬁc Islander workers (who represent 6% of working-age state residents) are dispro-

portionately concentrated in the professional, scientiﬁc, and technical services management of companies

and enterprises (12%); health care and social assistance (9%); and ﬁnance and insurance (8%) industries.

American Indian or Alaska Native people (who represent 0.1% of working-age state residents) are dispropor-

tionately concentrated in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (0.2%) industry.

When looking at the intersection of race and gender, Black women in Illinois (who represent 7% of work-

ing-age residents) are more likely to be in health care and social assistance (15% of health care workers);

Black men (6% of working-age state residents) in transportation and warehousing (15%); Latinas (8% of

working-age state residents) in accommodation and food services (13%); and Latinos (9% of working-age

state residents) in construction (22%).

Asian women (3% of working-age state residents) are over-represented in the health care and social assis-

tance (6%) industry sector; Asian men (3% of working-age state residents) are more concentrated in

professional, scientiﬁc, and technical services (8%); American Indian or Alaska Native women (0.05% of

working-age state residents) in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (0.16%); and American Indian or

Alaska Native men (0.04% of working-age state residents) in utilities (0.14%) sectors.

Notably, many of these industries also employ signiﬁcant numbers of other “covered populations”, making

them particularly appealing areas for state policymakers to target.

Closing equity gaps can catapult both workers and businesses to greater economic success. As this data on

occupational segregation highlights, many marginalized workers are clustered in industries that have rap-

idly growing demand for technological skills. As a result, both workers themselves and the companies that

employ them can ﬂourish if given the opportunity for upskilling.

38 For more information on this topic, see NSC’s fact sheet on Applying a Racial Equity Lens to Digital Literacy: https://nationalskillsco-

alition.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Digital-Skills-Racial-Equity-Final.pdf.

48 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 49

FIGURE 17: Percent of Illinoisans aged 16-64 who reside in non-metro or mixed areas,

by Industry of Employment

Individuals living in rural areas

Individuals in rural communities face compounded challenges — they are more likely to lack broadband inter-

net access due to their geographic location, and this lack of access then hampers their ability to get online

and build better digital skills by participating in educational and workforce opportunities. Tackling these

issues is crucial to ensure an even playing ﬁeld for individuals in rural areas.

The Census Bureau’s ACS data does not directly tell us whether someone resides in a rural or an urban area.

However, it does provide information on whether someone is located in a metropolitan area, not in a metro

area, or if their approximate location is “on the fence” (i.e., mixed). In Illinois, the mining, quarrying, and oil

and gas extraction, and agriculture, forestry, ﬁshing and hunting industries have disproportionate percent-

ages of workers located in non-metro or mixed areas.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting

Utilities

Public Administration

Manufacturing

Construction

Health Care and Social Assistance

Retail Trade

Wholesale Trade

Illinois Average (all industries)

Educational Services

Other Services (except Public Administration)

Accommodation and Food Services

Transportation and Warehousing

Admin and Support and Waste Management and…

Information

Finance and Insurance

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

Management of Companies and Enterprises

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Source: FRB/NSC analysis of 2016-2020 American Community Survey data accessed via IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org

50 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 51

In addition, 22 percent of American Indian or Alaska Natives (AIAN) in Illinois live in non-metro or mixed

areas, signiﬁcantly above the 15 percent average for all Illinois residents and the 19 percent average for the

United States. In the industries that disproportionately employ AIAN Illinois residents — mining, quarrying,

and oil and gas extraction and utilities — 66 percent and 24 percent, respectively, of the American Indians

and Alaska Natives in those jobs reside in non-metro or mixed areas.

Individuals who are currently incarcerated

People who are incarcerated (in non-federal institutions) are another “covered population” under the

Digital Equity Act. These individuals face particular challenges in building digital skills while behind bars.

Correctional education programs may restrict or even prohibit the use of digital technology or internet

access, which puts justice-involved people at a disadvantage when reentering society.

The Sentencing Project, a nonproﬁt organization, found that in Illinois, there are more than 46,000 people

incarcerated in prisons in jails.

Black people are imprisoned almost eight times the rate of white people, and

Latinos are imprisoned at 1.5 times the rate of white people. Removing technology and internet restrictions,

and providing meaningful opportunities for incarcerated people to build digital skills, can allow individuals to

prepare effectively for life and employment after release.

39 U.S. Criminal Justice Data, The Sentencing Project (2022)

40 Building the Technology Ecosystem for Correctional Education: Brief and Discussion Guide https://lincs.ed.gov/sites/default/ﬁles/

tech-ecosystem-correctional-ed.pdf, (U.S. Department of Education, 2022.)

50 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 51

52 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 53

METHODOLOGY

he data analysis for this report was carried

out as a joint project between the Federal

Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the nonproﬁt

NSC (hereafter, the research team). The dataset

used was obtained from the labor market informa-

tion company Lightcast, formerly known as Emsi

Burning Glass.

In determining how to assess employers’ demand

for digital skills, the research team ﬁrst reviewed

other literature on the digitalization of the work-

force (such as this 2017 report from the Brookings

Institution). Ultimately, we did not feel that those

taxonomies would work for our purposes.

The team also considered whether to use the 800+

federal O*NET occupational categories as the

basis for our analysis. In that case, we determined

that the categories were neither ﬁne-grained nor

recently updated enough to serve our purposes.

This decision was informed by qualitative research

conducted by NSC, such as one employer interview

which revealed that the human resources staff had

recently had to add digital skill requirements to their

company’s otherwise O*Net-based job descriptions

to bring them up to date.

Instead, to produce this report, the research team

created our own taxonomy. This is how we did it:

The dataset of 43 million online job postings assem-

bled by Lightcast included information on the par-

ticular skills associated with each job posting. The

typical job ad required applicants to have 8 different

skills. Across all ads, there were 15,000 distinct skills

extracted and standardized by Lightcast.

We sorted the 15,000 Lightcast-labeled skills

in descending order of frequency — that is, the

most-frequently-requested skills at the top. We

then selected the top 50 percent (7,500 skills) and

hand-coded them. Notably, this top 50 percent

covered 99.99 percent of job ads, while the “long

tail” of remaining uncoded skills only covered .01

percent of jobs.

This manual coding formed the basis for the original

analysis and ﬁndings in this report. Speciﬁcally,

the research team coded each skill across three

domains.

First, the team coded each skill according to

whether it was definitely digital, likely digital, or

not digital.

■

Deﬁnitely digital skills were those that pertained

to a named software product, hardware tool, or

category of products, such as Google Docs or

AutoCAD, or otherwise clearly indicated tech-

nology skills, such as social media or computer

literacy.

■

Likely digital skills were tasks such as survey

design or bookkeeping — tasks that today are fre-

quently accomplished with the use of a computer

or other digital device but could still be carried

out in an old-fashioned analog fashion.

■

Not digital skills include manual labor tasks like

changing diapers or ironing.

The second domain on which skills were coded was

whether they required direct or indirect digital

competence. For example, Microsoft Excel requires

direct digital competency since it’s computer soft-

ware. Digital journalism, by contrast, requires digital

skills indirectly — that is, one has to be comfortable

using a computer in order to successfully engage in

digital journalism.

The third and ﬁnal domain we used was to distin-

guish between general and foundational digital

skills versus those that are more industry specific.

Foundational digital skills are those that require

relatively little training and are used across a wide

range of industries and occupations. These include

basic skills such as typing or data entry as well as

heavily used software programs such as Microsoft

PowerPoint. (While one can of course be a “power

user” of any software product and thus someone

might be using PowerPoint at a very sophisticated

level, our taxonomy is designed to reﬂect how a

52 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 53

typical user might use the product.)

In contrast, industry-speciﬁc skills generally require

more specialized expertise, such as using electronic

health records, or carrying out Programmable Logic

Controller (PLC) programming.

We are aware that “industry-speciﬁc” is a bit

of a misnomer; there are specialized skills that

cross more than one industry, such as Enterprise

Resource Planning (ERP) software, or robotics.

Still, we felt it was particularly important to make

a distinction between foundational skills and other

technology skills. One reason is that there are a host

of curricula, lesson plans, measurement tools, and

other resources meant to hone and measure indi-

viduals’ proﬁciency with foundational digital skills.

But there are far fewer such resources for gauging

competency in industry-specific digital skills.

By ensuring that our analysis broke out these skills

into different categories, we could illustrate the

robust demand for industry-speciﬁc skills across

industries and occupational levels. Documenting this

demand helps to illuminate the urgency of devel-

oping new assessments and instructional tools for

these digital skills. This task is of particular impor-

tance given the imminent roll-out of the Digital

Equity Act state formula funding and federal com-

petitive grants, both of which are likely to require

grantees to report on the digital skills gains of their

participants.

To gauge inter-rater reliability, 5 percent of our

total array of skills were coded twice — once each

by different members of the research team. We

were reassured by the strong degree of agreement

evidenced by this process.

ADDITIONAL CODING DECISIONS

The research team made several additional deci-

sions that affected a notable number of skills. For

example, any skill that simply pertained to sub-

ject-matter expertise — which Lightcast usually indi-

cated using the sufﬁx “industry knowledge” — was

considered not digital. The only exceptions were

areas that were clearly technology-related, such as

payment processing industry knowledge.

1 For an overview of such resources, see Digital Resilience

in the American Workforce: Findings from a National

Landscape Scan on Adult Digital Literacy Instruction

(Jobs for the Future, 2022).

Similarly, the numerous medical conditions that

Lightcast codes as skills, such as chicken pox or

hives, were coded as not digital, under the assump-

tion that these appear in job listings when the

applicant is expected to have content-area expertise

about the disease itself.

In general, skills that pertained to knowledge of

speciﬁc principles, certain types of experience, and

specific names of legislation were not coded as digi-

tal. Again, there were a handful of exceptions.

WHAT WE LEARNED AS WE WERE

CODING 7,500 SKILLS

When the research team encountered a skill with

which we were unfamiliar, we conducted additional

research to better understand the skill. This included

simple web and job-listings aggregator searches,

consulting with colleagues, and reaching out to peo-

ple we knew who worked in the relevant ﬁeld. We

were intrigued to ﬁnd that virtually every time we

consulted a worker about their occupation, the skill

that we were asking about did turn out to be digital.

In general, our instincts were on the conservative

side — that is, skills that we had planned to list as not

digital or likely digital often ended up as deﬁnitely

digital after further research and consultation.

We did our utmost to ensure that ambiguous terms

or those with multiple deﬁnitions were accurately

coded in our taxonomy. For example, research

revealed that despite its food-themed name,

CocoaPods actually refers to a type of software.

Similarly, although Murex is both a type of ﬁnancial

software and also a genus of medium to large sized

predatory tropical sea snails, we are conﬁdent that

employers were actually seeking the former and not

the latter.

CAVEATS ABOUT THE DATASET

WE USED:

Not all jobs are publicly posted. As a result, the

Lightcast dataset we used is necessarily incomplete.

Some businesses choose to hire informally — that

is, without online postings — because they are

small, because of the nature of their industry, or

because they have gotten better results in the past

from highly localized in-person advertising (e.g.,

literal community bulletin boards) or from private,

paywalled job boards that Lightcast wouldn’t have

54 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 55

access to.

Some job openings are ﬁlled through

internal promotion and never posted anywhere. We

do not have sufﬁcient information to know whether

these “invisible” job postings are more or less likely

to require digital skills than those postings that

Lightcast was able to capture.

Not all jobs that actually require digital skills

have updated their job descriptions to indicate

the need for those skills. For example, as part

of earlier research, NSC interviewed staff at one

Fortune 100 company with thousands of workers

across the United States. The interview revealed that

job descriptions are developed locally and are not

standardized across locations, even for the same

occupation. During the pandemic, as frontline jobs

quickly changed to require more digital skills, short-

handed plant managers did not necessarily update

their job postings.

Similarly, another business had assumed its truck

drivers possessed baseline digital skills and had not

bothered to specify them in their job descriptions.

But when the company transitioned to an app-based

payroll system, supervisors unexpectedly had to

spend enormous amounts of time providing individ-

ualized tech support to drivers who had never used

this type of mobile tool and were not equipped to

accurately report their hours for legal and payment

purposes.

In both cases, the Lightcast data we used for this

study would not have captured the newly required

digital skills, because the relevant employer would

not have included them in their online job posting.

For this reason, we believe that the Lightcast data

is, if anything, an undercount of digital skill require-

ments in job openings today.

Not all “skills” are skills. Lightcast’s process for

scraping job postings and standardizing the qual-

iﬁcations listed in the postings into broad “skill”

categories is imperfect. The research team observed

how this shows up in the data when we noticed that

“animal dander” was showing up as a skill. A review

of common job listings on sites such as Indeed and

LinkedIn quickly revealed that not being allergic to

animal dander is a commonly listed requirement for

a variety of laboratory, veterinary ofﬁce, and zoo

2 For example, one such site in the Washington D.C. area is

www.traversejobs.com/

jobs. Obviously, this is not a skill in the sense that a

person can learn or develop it.

We are satisﬁed that our own manual coding of

skills eliminated most of this noise in the data.

However, we acknowledge that there are a few items

that were impossible to disentangle. For example,

“mobile phones” in a job listing often indicates sub-

ject-area knowledge or technical expertise that a job

applicant must have, but in other cases may reﬂect

the employer’s requirement that applicants have

their own mobile phone in order to do the job.

Lightcast’s skill groups vary signiﬁcantly in

granularity. The aggregation decisions made by

Lightcast before releasing the data to the public

are inevitably to some degree mysterious and

arbitrary. We noted that for some industries, such

as IT, there were a plethora of highly speciﬁc skills,

including brand names of speciﬁc software prod-

ucts, all reported as individual skill types. In con-

trast, for other ﬁelds such as law and science, huge

umbrella terms such as litigation or geology often

showed up. We suspect that this may have led to

an under-counting of digital skills, or at least to a

classiﬁcation of some items as likely digital that in

reality might ﬁt better under deﬁnitely digital. Given

that there was no practical way for us to re-code the

underlying 43 million job postings, we are satisﬁed

that we did the best we could.

Data on business size is inferred. As noted in the

main report, Lightcast does not directly catego-

rize job ads based on the size of the company that

posted them. Instead, the data show the number

of job ads posted per year for a given company.

We inferred from that data that companies posting

between one and ﬁfty job ads per year are on aver-

age smaller businesses than companies posting, for

example, 500 or more ads per year. The research

team recognizes that this isn’t a perfect proxy and

that there are outliers out there.

The team also recognizes this method up-ranks high

growth, high turnover labor intensive ﬁrms; and

down-ranks highly productive ﬁrms with a smaller

workforce; and ﬁrms with lower rates of turnover.

However, we ﬁnd this method generally aligns with

revenue- and employee-size-based deﬁnitions of

business size.

54 CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY CLOSING THE DIGITAL SKILL DIVIDE: THE PAYOFF FOR WORKERS, BUSINESS, AND THE ECONOMY 55

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