Exclusive: Jamie Dimon says America's school-to-job pipeline is broken
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America's schools, businesses and cities are failing to help younger workers and underrepresented communities prepare for and land well-paid jobs, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told Axios in an exclusive interview.
Why it matters: Job hunting has become brutal for many workers entering the labor force for the first time. Dimon has called out colleges for not focusing enough on getting their graduates good jobs.
- "Businesses have to hire a lot of people and they have to train them, so when the school system doesn't do it, it makes this harder for companies, he told Axios.
- "What you need in a lot of these things is, certificates and training that get them the good job."
Driving the news: Dimon is speaking out as the New York Jobs CEO Council, a nonprofit that he started in early 2020, released its annual report Thursday.
- The coalition helps schools, colleges and companies create curriculum and training programs to place workers into high-paying jobs — with a focus on New Yorkers from low-income communities and the City University of New York (CUNY).
- Made up of 30 member companies, including Accenture, Amazon, Bank of America, Citi, Google, Microsoft and Ralph Lauren, the council wants to "build a system where every New Yorker has a pathway to a family-sustaining job" through apprenticeships and other earn and learn programs, Kiersten Barnet, executive director of the New York Jobs CEO Council, told Axios.
When asked why he's so committed to a program for underrepresented communities — at a time when so many other CEOs are backing away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) projects — Dimon said the efforts of the Jobs Council's "got nothing to do with DEI" and that he's "not interested in labels."
- "This has to do with the system isn't working and needs to be fixed," he said.
- "It is part of our job [as CEOs and companies] to lift up society. You call that whatever you want. ... If we leave behind whole parts of society, we're making a huge mistake for our country."
By the numbers: In 2023, the council companies hired a total of 10,388 low-income New Yorkers into jobs paying more than $69,000.
- Separately, they hired 4,258 people who didn't have a four-year degree.
- The nonprofit's member companies have hired nearly 40,000 low income New Yorkers in total over the past three years — 40% of its goal of 100,000 by the end of the decade.
What they're saying: Entry-level jobs over $69,000 include "desirable campus recruiting roles" like data analysts, software engineers and financial analysts, Barnet told Axios.
- "When you think about what you need to do a job, it is skills. It's not a degree," Barnet, who meets with Dimon in person almost every other Friday, added.
- "Obviously, we'll always have regulated industries like nursing and accounting where you need them, but there's so many jobs where you don't," she said.
The intrigue: But even when it comes to areas like healthcare, Barnet says there are ways to make the process easier.
- For example, the council has built a route for high school students to get medical assistant certifications in their senior year to get a head start on a nursing education.
What we're watching: Skills-based hiring has also been a focus of the Business Roundtable, a group of more than 200 top CEOs that includes Dimon.
