PayScale survey found 39% of hiring managers felt that recent grads lacked public speaking skill

On May 17th PayScale issued a press release about their 2016 Workforce-Skills Preparedness Report.

A bar chart shows percentages for nine hard skills. (Click on it for a larger, clearer view).  44% of hiring managers felt that recent grads lacked writing proficiency. At 39% Public speaking was second. Over a third of hiring managers felt that recent grads lacked four hard skills: writing proficiency 44% public speaking 39%, data analysis 36%, and industry-specific software 34%.

Another bar chart shows percentages for eight soft skills. Over a third of hiring managers felt that recent grads lacked six soft skills: critical thinking problem solving 60%, attention to detail 56%, communication 46%, leadership 44%, ownership 44%, and interpersonal skills/teamwork 36%.

A third bar chart compares how prepared for a full time job both hiring managers and recent grads thought recent grads were. There were four levels: Extremely prepared, Mostly prepared, Minimally prepared, and Unprepared. As shown above, 25% of recent grads thought they were Extremely prepared, but only 8% of managers thought they were. 62% of recent grads thought they were Mostly prepared, but only 42% of managers thought they were. Just 11% of recent grads thought they were Minimally prepared, but 35% of managers thought they were. Finally, just 3% of recent grads thought they were Unprepared, but 15% of managers thought they were.