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Work Skills of Graduates Seen Lacking

New employees with just high school diplomas, and even some employees with four-year college degrees, lack the work skills needed to succeed in a global and increasingly competitive workplace, suggests a survey of corporate human-resource officials.

It found, for instance, that 75 percent of the 431 company human-resource officials polled said K-12 schools are responsible for teaching basic skills such as writing, critical thinking, reading comprehension, and work ethic, suggesting that they have fallen short of that responsibility.

“The future of the U.S. workforce is here—and it is woefully ill-prepared for the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s workplace,” write the authors of the survey, “Are They...