Workers without high school diplomas ease labor shortage — but not without a downside

A surprising number of workers without high school diplomas are keeping the U.S. economy humming.

The share of people without a high school degree who are in the workforce – meaning they’re working or looking for jobs – hit a record high in July, capping an 18-month surge by that group into America’s job market, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The development is helping alleviate severe shortages of lower-skilled workers in industries such as restaurants, retail and construction, economists say. Yet it has also made it tougher for workers with less schooling to find positions as they compete against other comparably skilled job seekers, pushing up their unemployment rate and the U.S. jobless rate overall.

In July, 49% of adults who have less than a high school diploma were in the workforce, up from 47% in June and the most on record dating to 1992, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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The monthly numbers, which are adjusted to account for seasonal ups and downs, are volatile and July’s jump could have been a blip, says Brad Hershbein, senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. The August jobs report, due out Friday, should reveal whether the recent uptick reflected a more sustainable rise.

Either way, workers without a high school diploma have been joining the labor force at a historically rapid pace. Their share in the workforce has broadly ranged from 47% to 49% since early 2023, higher than the previous two years and than the prepandemic average, notes Marisa DiNatale, an economist at Moody’s Analytics.

What is the current US labor force participation rate?

By contrast, every other education group – high school graduates, people with some college or an associate’s degree and those with a Bachelor’s or higher – has seen their labor force participation climb the past few years but remain well below their prepandemic mark. The overall U.S. labor force participation rate was at 62.7% in July, up from the depths of the health crisis but below the recent peak of 63.3% in early 2020.

Much of the rise in participation among less-skilled workers can be traced to a massive immigration surge, especially from Latin American countries, DiNatale says. Many of the recent arrivals didn't graduate from high school in their home countries.

How many immigrants came to the US to work?

Goldman Sachs estimates that about 50,000 immigrants a month are entering the workforce. And of the 3 million jobs the nation added last year, about a third likely went to newly arrived immigrants, most of whom lack permanent legal status, RBC Capital Markets estimated recently.

Yet more native-born Americans without a high school diploma also have streamed into the job market. COVID-related labor shortages were especially dire in industries that required people with less skills and education to work in person rather than remotely, such as restaurants, hotels and construction, DiNatale says.

Do low earners in the US enjoy the fastest wage growth?

As a result, wages for lower-paid workers spiked more sharply than those of other groups. Average hourly pay for restaurant and bar employees leaped 15.3% in 2021, 6.9% in 2022 and 4.7% in 2023, Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show.

Many lower-income workers, hit especially hard by a COVID-induced inflation spike, were drawn into a robust job market with more opportunities and fast-rising earnings.

“A lot of people left (the restaurant) industry” during the pandemic, DiNatale says. The increase in job seekers in that and other sectors that require on-site work “probably has been very helpful in filling lots of jobs.”

Is there a labor shortage in the construction industry?

In late June, 94% of construction contractors said they had a hard time filling open positions, up from 88% last year, according to a survey by Associated General Contractors of America, a trade group.

But just 63% of contractors said they struggled to fill vacancies for laborers, who do lower-skill tasks such as digging trenches, mixing concrete and helping higher-skilled workers. That’s down from 70% last year and 76% in 2022.

“This is suggestive that more people with lesser skills are getting hired and easier to find,” says AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson.

Jerry Baker, president of W.H. Stovall & Co. in Ashland, Virginia, said his revenue has quadrupled the past couple of years because of a flurry of research and development and office building projects at universities and companies such as Meta and Lego.

To handle the work, he has doubled his staff to about 50, with immigrants comprising most of the increase.

“The only way we’re putting that much work in place is because we had an increase in the non-American workforce,” he says.

Is the hiring market slowing down?

At the same time, more workers lacking high school degrees are competing for jobs at the same time the economy and job market has cooled because of the Federal Reserve’s high interest rates aimed at bringing down inflation. As a result, a smaller share are landing positions.

The unemployment rate for people with less than a high school diploma was at 6.7% in July, up from 5.3% a year earlier. The jobless rate for high school graduates with no college also increased sharply the past year, from 3.3% to 6.7%.

That’s further squeezing low- and middle-income Americans and pushed total U.S. credit card debt to a record $1.14 trillion in the second quarter and delinquencies to a 12-year high.

Is the unemployment rate an indicator of recession?

The increase in joblessness for workers who didn't graduate high school also has helped drive up the nation’s unemployment rate to 4.3% in July from 3.7% in January and raised recession fears. The jobless rate for college grads, by contrast, has edged up more modestly, to 2.3% in July from 2% a year earlier.

Many economists say they’re less concerned that the rise in the nation’s unemployment rate will lead to recession because it’s rooted in an expanding labor force rather than layoffs.