High-school graduates are showing up for work with such deficient skills in reading, writing, and mathematics, and with such a mediocre sense of professionalism and work ethic, that many business leaders say they plan to hire fewer of them over the next five years and instead hire more graduates of two- and four-year colleges, according to a report released today by the Conference Board, a research group that focuses on businesses, and three other organizations.

The report, which was based on a survey last spring of 431 human-resource officials in corporate America, said, “The future workforce is here, and it is ill-prepared.” The survey found writing skills to be particularly lacking among high-school graduates, but also among college graduates. A majority of respondents to the survey said most college graduates were adequately prepared for the workplace, but relatively few respondents said those graduates were excellently prepared.

Three out of four participants in the survey ranked “creativity/innovation” as one of the top five skills they sought in new hires. The respondents also ranked a knowledge of foreign languages and cultures as very important, and indicated that an emerging issue in hiring was the choices job applicants had made on matters of health and wellness, including “nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, work-life effectiveness.”