California’s Newsom promotes skilled labor, reduces degree requirements for government jobs

(The Center Square) - California governor Gavin Newsom announced a series of educational reforms in California via executive order to promote skilled labor as a four-year college alternative and reduce superfluous degree requirements for government jobs.

With the governor’s new order directing the California Human Resources Department to evaluate whether a college degree is needed for a particular position whenever its classification is reviewed, California would join Maryland, Utah, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Alaska, North Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia in eliminating degree requirements for many government jobs.

Further emphasizing the importance of skilled labor, the governor renamed the “Governor's Council for Postsecondary Education” to the “Governor's Council for Career Education” to focus on the state’s renewed emphasis on career pathways, and ordered the creation of a Master Plan on Career Education.

“All families, students, and workers deserve the freedom to succeed: to build real-life skills and pursue careers — including those that don’t require college degrees,” Newsom said. “California is leveraging billions of dollars in investments to prepare students and workers for good-paying, long-lasting, and fulfilling careers.”

According to a joint analysis by Beacon Economics and the University of California Riverside, California’s labor force has declined by 313,600 workers since February of 2020. California’s population declined by roughly one million residents across a similar timeframe, offsetting some labor pressures, but the state nonetheless maintains over one million job openings according to the latest statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.