Qlik Reveals Data Literacy Skills Shortage in U.S.

Radnor, PA – January 29, 2018 – Qlik®, a leader in data analytics, today announced the results from its U.S. Data Literacy Survey, revealing an escalating skills gap preventing those in the workforce from making strategic, data-driven decisions. Data literacy and analytics skills can help companies and their employees capitalize on an unprecedented economic opportunity, which many are referring to as the Analytics Economy. Yet in the U.S. of over a thousand business leaders surveyed, only 33 percent of employees feel confident in their data literacy skills, defined as the ability to read, work with, analyze and argue with data.

“With more data being created today than ever before, workers lack the skills to fully leverage this abundance of information to create actionable insights. To bridge this skills gap and prepare people to keep up with the accelerating pace at which data is being created and consumed, Qlik is on a mission toward making the world more data literate,” said Jordan Morrow, Head of Data Literacy at Qlik.

Data Literacy Increases Employee Value
Respondents overwhelmingly agree that data not only helps them do their job better (97 percent) but enhances their credibility (87 percent).

• 74% agree their company would value them more if they improved their data literacy level.
• 82% said they would be willing to invest more time and energy into improving their data literacy skills.
• 93% of people that are reported as data literate say they are performing very well at work.

Junior-level employees in the U.S. are among those least confident in completing data-oriented tasks, with only 21 percent classifying themselves as data literate. Middle managers (28 percent) in the U.S. are less likely to be data literate in comparison to C-suite executives (38 percent), despite using data more times per week in their positions.

Lack of Education and Resources for Improvement
This disparity in data literacy skills across organizations in the U.S. demonstrates a significant need for more training and educational opportunities. With 76 percent of employees reporting to work with a higher volume of data today compared to three years ago, the survey also revealed that 55 percent of employees lack the education and resources to make sound decisions based on insight, and rather make decisions based on “gut feelings.”

Individuals can take a brief self-assessment of their data literacy skills here, and can search survey results comparing U.S. data to that collected from over 5,000 respondents in Europe using the Qlik Data Literacy Survey app. Those who are interested in taking free data literacy courses can learn more here.

About the Survey

The research was conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Qlik. The research surveyed 1,042 business decision makers and was carried out between September 21, 2017 and September 26, 2017. Respondents include 94 junior managers, 270 middle managers, 215 senior managers, 94 directors, 164 C-level executives, 158 business owners, 13 partners and 34 presidents across a range of industry sectors.