At a time when the slumping U.S. economy has many worried about job security and advancement, it’s not unexpected that Americans would consider upgrading their skills through formal academic programs, completing degree programs they previously started but left unfinished, or seeking advanced degrees.

One recent study, highlighting the role that many believe formal education plays in the workplace, reports that almost one in five (19 percent) Americans — which amounts to roughly 40 million adults in the United States — say they know someone at their current or past job who has been passed over for a job because they didn’t have the right academic degree. One in 10 (10 percent) respondents say they themselves have been denied a job during their careers for not having a degree.

Released this month, the survey was commissioned for eLearners.com, a Web site published by EducationDynamics, a higher education recruitment, enrollment and retention services company based in Hoboken, N.J. Kelton Research, a Culver City, Calif.-based research firm, conducted the eLearners.com survey between July 17 and July 21, 2008 using an e-mail invitation and an online survey of 1,000 nationally representative respondents.

“The statistics from this study confirm what has widely been known. Not only is a degree critical to getting a job, but it is also key to advancing in one’s career. And given the current economic climate, a degree might be needed just to keep your job,” says Terrence Thomas, the executive vice president for marketing operations at EducationDynamics.

Other significant findings from the survey found that:

• More Blacks than White Americans say they have been denied job opportunities because of a lack of a college degree. The study revealed that 25 percent of Black respondents reported they were denied either a job, promotion or a raise, compared to 13 percent of Whites.

• Older workers are more aware of discrimination in connection to education attainment. More than a quarter (26 percent) of Americans ages 55 and older admit knowing about a person at work who was passed over for a promotion because they didn’t have a certain degree, in contrast to 15 percent of 18- to 54-year-olds.
• Almost one in 10 (9 percent) Americans without a college degree reported they were denied a promotion because of their lack of education.

          “The message is loud and clear, that in today’s competitive job market, if you don't have the right education others will pass you by,” Thomas says.