New survey results reveal that Americans’ satisfaction with their customer experiences today has fallen to the lowest level in at least a decade. This decline can be traced to two things: a stagnating level of worker productivity, and an education system failing to impart practical skills to the workforce.

In the post-COVID era, the growth in worker productivity totals less than 1 percent over the last three years—the most anemic in three decades. That’s bad news for customers and workers alike.

As a 2024 McKinsey & Company report explained, “labor productivity growth drives higher incomes, which increases demand for products and services, which in turn encourages business investment and innovation, driving productivity growth and restarting the cycle.”

But that positive feedback loop has been short-circuited today as employers now perpetually struggle to find enough quality workers. This is especially true for small businesses, where employers continuously complain about the caliber of applicants to job postings and the deterioration of formerly reliable predictors.

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Put simply, credentials like a college degree don’t mean what they used to and no longer indicate a strong likelihood of an employee’s success on the job. Furthermore, the misalignment of college courses with today’s technologically advanced labor markets presents hiring challenges for specialized jobs.

A college diploma used to signal to an employer that the individual has a basic set of skills, including critical thinking and communication. However, higher education has been infiltrated with political indoctrination. College can confer impediments instead of advantages toward career success.

Increasingly, employers value demonstrated skills and experience over a college degree for employment eligibility. For example, a survey conducted by Intelligent of 800 U.S. employers found that an astonishing “45% of companies plan to eliminate bachelor’s degree requirements for some positions in 2024.” Additionally, 80% of employers indicated they are “very likely” or “likely” to value the candidate’s experience more than education.

But it’s not just employers who have lost faith in college degrees. Parents, as well as students, aren’t valuing college like they used to—and it’s clear why.

According to an essay in The Wall Street Journal, “nearly half of parents say they would prefer not to send their children to a four-year college after high school, even if there were no obstacles, financial or otherwise.” And among high-school students, two-thirds are confident that “they will be just fine without a college degree.”

Look no further than the college campus protests at Ivy League universities. Participants—allegedly the best and brightest of American college students—demonstrated ignorance and peddled racist tropes.

Apparently, the nearly $90,000 per year price tag for tuition, room and board at these schools can only equip students to inarticulately protest, not acquire skills to launch a career. That’s not exactly a good return on investment.

But colleges with far less steep price tags also aren’t attracting students for admission or employers for hiring recruitment. Nationwide, three million fewer students have been enrolled in higher education since 2011.

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For millions of recent college grads, higher education has not merely wasted time and money—it has actively taken them backwards. They left college with an albatross of student loan debt around their neck and unproductive attitudes that downplay industriousness.

Between the academic establishment condoning inappropriate campus protests, rapidly rising tuition prices, and more employers ignoring college degrees on resumes, it’s obvious why the value of higher education has declined.

As these problems worsen, expect the already significant enrollment downturns to accelerate.

As it becomes commonplace for employers to seek skills and experience over education, demand for highly adroit individuals with hands-on experience is skyrocketing. There has been bipartisan support for public employers dropping the college-degree requirement as a solution to fill open jobs with qualified individuals.

Meeting this rising demand for employees with skills and experience will require strategically innovating primary, secondary, and tertiary education. That’s particularly true for high schools, where providing hands-on, industry-specific preparation alongside quality, practical academics would engage students in a curriculum that prepares them with the skills necessary for post-high school success.

Industry leaders have a strong incentive to combine their field expertise and access to assets with the recognized need for highly skilled and knowledgeable workers.

The return on investment will pay tremendous dividends for the students, employers, industry, local communities, and beyond by putting productivity growth on steroids.