Minnesota is taking an ambitious, integrated approach to solving future workforce shortages:

St. Paul – To ensure that state government is able to successfully carry out its mission now and in the future, Governor Tim Pawlenty today signed an executive order that requires all state agencies to conduct workforce planning to deal with potential labor shortages. The number of state employees retiring annually has increased by 32 percent over the last five years. . . .

The Governor’s executive order requires all executive branch agencies to work with the Department of Employee Relations (DOER) to develop and implement workforce plans. DOER will assist agencies in creating their plans while coordinating an exchange of information between agencies to share resources and to address future work shortages and technology issues.

Link to press release.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma has also announced its goals for developing workforce development partnerships that include education and economic development perspectives. Like Minnesota, it’s looking ahead at demographic trends that reveal a looming labor supply crunch.

Oct. 3, 2007 – The Governor’s Council for Workforce and Economic Development approved a broad set of goals this week aimed at creating a full pipeline of skilled workers to meet the current and future demands of Oklahoma businesses.

Dubbed “Grow Oklahoma,” the approved initiatives are as follows:

• Growing talent, skills and knowledge;
• Growing and delivering solutions for talent recruitment and retention;
• Growing awareness and success of the effort to align workforce, education and economic development.

Read the full release.

On September 26th, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released prototype estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) for the nation’s metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). Representing the total market value of all goods and services produced in the area, metro GDP is available for 363 areas and 61 NAICS industries for each area.

This detailed information is an exciting new metric for analyzing regional performance, either in a time-series analysis or for regional benchmarking.

Predictably, the New York City MSA tops the list with a GDP of $1.1 trillion, nearly 9% of the GDP for the entire U.S.

Julian Alssid of the New-York-based Workforce Strategy Center has written an incisive op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor regarding the status and future of America’s workers. Alssid argues that we have plenty of workers to fill tomorrow’s jobs, but our workers lack the advanced skills and knowledge that those jobs require.

As of 2006, nearly half of adults over the age of 25 – approximately 90 million Americans – had no more than a high school diploma or GED. Yet 65 percent of the country’s fastest growing occupations require postsecondary education. In short, it’s not that the US doesn’t have enough jobs to go around. It’s that it doesn’t have a workforce trained to fill them. The US could close this gap if the nation made a commitment to help workers obtain two key credentials: postsecondary education and technical aptitude.

Alssid goes on to lay out seven steps for bridging the skills gap: Promote access, support students, improve transitions, involve employers, build capacity through innovation, measure results, and lead from the top.

Read the full op-ed here.

The Institute for a Competitive Workforce (a part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) is having its annual summit on Sept. 24-26 in Washington, D.C. The event includes a keynote speech by Fed chief Ben Bernanke.

The Summit is part of a national effort to promote effective and sustainable business and education partnerships. Now, more than ever, the future of business in the United States depends on our education and training systems and their ability to adapt to changes in technology, demographics, globalization, and other forces affecting our society and our economy.

Upcoming symposium on entrepreneurship sponsored by the U.S. Economic Development Administration: September 26th in Kansas City. This is just one of several regional symposia of the same kind.

Summary:

America’s Dynamic Workforce: 2007 presents an overview of current conditions and notable trends affecting the American labor market and economic activity. Primary emphasis is on measures of labor market performance – employment, labor force participation, unemployment, and compensation. General measures of economic performance such as gross domestic product (GDP) and productivity growth are also described as they relate to labor market conditions and trends.

Read the report here.

Pennsylvania is one of the nation’s leading states in developing an integrated, demand-driven workforce system. One of their system’s greatest strengths is the statewide Industry Partnerships initiative, in which the state offers grants to employer-led consortia to bring stakeholders together and provide workers with the training they need to succeed. In the context of these partnerships, PA has developed a pilot Career Pathways initiative to improve strategies for worker training and advancement.

Read the release here.

The Census Bureau has launched a new site to create public awareness for the upcoming 2007 Economic Census. The site houses industry snapshots for featured industries, encouragements for businesses to fill out the census forms when they get them, and other things.

The “other thing” that sparked our interest was in the “Industry Ratios” reports, which link over to the NAICS definitions for the all of the industry codes—a nice resource and available here. At the two-digit NAICS super-sector level, the description is pretty lengthy and give some insight into the thought behind the classifications, as we see here for Manufacturing:

The boundaries of manufacturing and the other sectors of the classification system can be somewhat blurry. The establishments in the manufacturing sector are engaged in the transformation of materials into new products. Their output is a new product. However, the definition of what constitutes a new product can be somewhat subjective. As clarification, the following activities are considered manufacturing in NAICS: Milk bottling and pasteurizing . . .

The site allows you to drill down for higher digit detail and gives progressively shorter industry descriptions down to the six-digit level. It’s a great resource for research into some of the methodology behind the codes and finding your way through some of the trickier industry distinctions.

The South Florida Business Journal reports that the Sunshine State has brought their already formidable 2006 10th place ranking for their workforce training programs up to number 3 in a 2007 poll by Expansion Management. The study bases the ranking on the opinions of more than 80 site selectors across the nation. Georgia ranked #1 and Alabama #2.

Workforce Florida seems to be behind this surge. They’ve made huge advances, bringing together the major players in their communities. Their three major programs, Employ Florida, Quick Response Training, and Incumbent Worker Training, bridge the gap between workers and jobs and connect entities like community colleges and workforce boards to ensure that workforce skills match employer needs.

Florida’s work proves that site selectors notice and value regional integration of workforce and education.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today announced the launch of a third competition for President Bush’s Community-Based Job Training Grants. Public and tribal community and technical colleges, community college districts, state community college systems and One-Stop Career Centers will compete for awards totaling approximately $125 million.

Read the DOLETA press release.