To be illiterate in our society is more than simply an inconvenience, or an obstacle to making a living.  It is also a badge of shame.  That’s why the results of a January study that told us that almost a million Indiana workers – one third of the workforce -- failed to meet the minimum literacy standards for knowledge-based jobs hang heavily on those of us who have heard them.  Among researchers and policymakers, many of us have gone through the same stages of anger and denial at this disturbing finding as we would when we receive any bad news.

Thankfully, workforce literacy and the more common definition of the term are not the same thing.  The Indiana Chamber of Commerce’s study of the Indiana workforce does not literally say that one third of those employed in our state cannot read and write.  What it does say is that one out of every three of working adults do not have sufficient communications, critical thinking, and analytical skills to be viable candidates for the high paying, knowledge-based jobs our leaders hope to create.

When you consider that only about 25,000 workers are enrolled in formal training programs to upgrade their skills at any given time, that certainly seems like a big number.  Yet before we interpret this seemingly enormous gap between what workers need and what we’re providing, let’s try to get a handle on what all of this might mean.

First, there is absolutely no denying that that match between Indiana’s traditionally production-oriented economy and the workforce needs of the knowledge-based economy is a very poor one.  Particularly in the regions outside Indianapolis, we have thrived as centrally located, reasonably low cost producer and transporter of physical goods.  The proportion of those who work in production occupations remains higher in Indiana than in any other state, while the white collar proportion is just the opposite.

And there is also no question that it has been the knowledge-based side of the economy that has not only been creating the most jobs nationally, but has also eclipsed goods-oriented industries as the driver of overall wealth creation.  So a candid assessment of how our labor force shapes up to supply the needs of the faster growing, higher earning sectors of the economy is exactly what we should be doing.

Yet it must also be said that if we were to measure our workforce with a slightly different literacy yardstick, the results might be quite different.  For many of the same workers who cannot think abstractly or express themselves in writing sufficiently well enough to be considered minimally literate for a knowledge-based job can use, adjust, and repair complex equipment that white collar workers can’t even recognize.  Their handwriting may be illegible, but in their own workplace settings, their critical thinking and analytical skills may be more than adequate for the task.

It is also true that there will never be an economy where everyone has a high-paying job.  There is plenty of demand for workers whose skills don’t measure up to the requirements of the white collar workplace, and to deem a situation where such jobs still exist in great numbers a failure is unrealistic.

What the State Chamber’s study does ram home, however, is the extent of the challenge our state faces in plugging itself into the knowledge-based, services-producing side of the economy that is pulling the national economic wagon today.  The harsh truth is that when we try to create, nurture and recruit companies who sell expertise and knowledge, instead of physical goods, our workforce capabilities are a detriment, instead of an asset.

We’re not dumb, and we’re certainly not illiterate.  But we need to face the fact that the careers with the most promise today require a very different set of skills and abilities than those that our parents may have needed.  And the sooner we wake up to this new reality, the better.