Most employers who make hiring decisions still trust higher education and expect artificial intelligence to make a college degree more valuable, according to new findings from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation.
Six in 10 employers said they have a great deal (26%) or quite a lot (34%) of confidence in higher education as an institution. That is well above the 38% of U.S. adults who expressed that level of confidence in June, according to Gallup. The online opt-in survey ran Aug. 5-18 and included 2,500 U.S. employers who make hiring decisions, from businesses with fewer than 10 employees to those with 1,000 or more. It is the second annual employer study from the two organizations.
Looking ahead five years, 48% of employers said AI will make degrees more important, while 26% said it will make them less so. The belief was strongest in the information sector (59%) and held at roughly half of employers in financial activities (53%), trade and utilities (49%), and education and health services (49%).
Hiring preferences point the same direction. Eighty percent of employers said they would prefer a candidate with a college degree even if the job does not require one, including 31% who “strongly prefer” it. About 21% preferred candidates without a degree. Seventy-one percent favored candidates with at least an associate degree, and 68% favored those with at least a bachelor’s.
Size and industry shaped the results. Employers with fewer than 10 employees were the least confident in higher education at 44%, compared with at least 59% at every larger size. Gallup noted that smaller employers are also less likely to require degrees. Even so, 62% of the smallest employers preferred degree holders, a share that rose to 84% or more at organizations with 100 or more employees. Preference topped 90% in the information sector (91%) and was lowest in leisure and hospitality (66%) and construction (67%).
The authors said employers’ trust in how colleges prepare graduates appears to factor into how they weigh credentials. They also pointed to uncertainty over how AI will reshape the labor market.
Skills Concerns in an Earlier Report
The new release does not cover skills or immigration, but a March Lumina-Gallup report on an earlier employer survey does. Based on 2,000 employers surveyed in late 2025, it found only 54% believed U.S. colleges are graduating students with the skills their organizations need. Sixty-nine percent said recent graduates need a moderate or great deal of additional training, and 56% said it is difficult to find candidates with the right skills.
That report also found 38% of employers say they must hire foreign-born workers because of a perceived shortage of American workers with the skills they need. Thirty-six percent expected changes to the H-1B visa program to hurt their organization, versus 26% who expected a positive effect. In addition, 23% said they had removed degree requirements for some roles in the past three years, and another 20% were in the process of doing so.
The two surveys differ in sample size and timing, so their figures are not directly comparable. Gallup has not published the full report behind the new findings.
