Five Key Literacy Skills for Success and Moving PA Forward: Financial Literacy

Here are some reasons that FINANCIAL LITERACY is a PA Forward priority:

• Forty-five percent of U.S. adults give themselves a grade of C, D, or F on their personal finance knowledge.
• More than one in six U.S. students do not reach the baseline level of proficiency in financial literacy.
• Employers rank reading and writing as top deficiencies in new hires. Thirty-eight percent of employers find high school graduates "deficient" in reading comprehension, while 63% rate this basic skill "very important."
• Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high-school diploma, and yet just over half of our citizens have that level of education.
• In a knowledge-based economy, the demand for a highly skilled and educated workforce has never been greater.
• One in four adults does not pay bills on time. One in three has no savings and does not save any portion of household income for retirement.
• Thousands of Pennsylvanians contact the Attorney General's office each year about credit card charges, finance scams, and misleading solicitations.
• Good readers generally have more financially rewarding jobs. Proficient readers are 2.5 times as likely as basic readers to be earning $850 or more a week.
• Thirty-eight percent of basic readers said their reading level limited their job prospects.