The Nashville Chamber of Commerce recently released an extensive study of the area’s labor market written by the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (download report materials here; read the press release here). The report covers population, industry, and occupation trends and forecasts for the greater Nashville area, in addition to a labor market supply/demand analysis that compares area college graduates to high-demand occupations.

The report, titled “Labor Market Opportunities in the Nashville Economic Market Area: An Assessment of the Region’s Labor Force Demand and Supply,” states that of the approximately 1.25 million working-age people in the Nashville region, about 853,000 people are participating in the labor force and 34,000 are seeking work (4 percent unemployment rate). The report concludes that the region could face a shortage of about 2,300 or more workers per year during the next decade as job creation outpaces the number of people available to work.

“We are looking at workforce supply and demand from a long-term, regional perspective,” said Tennessee Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner James Neeley. “To effectively support our regional economic development priorities, it is imperative that we align our education and training resources with our workforce development needs.”

The authors of the study chose to use EMSI’s Strategic Advantage web-based regional analysis tool (paired with EMSI’s Complete Employment dataset) because of its ease of use, geographic flexibility, inclusion of all types of jobs (not just those covered by unemployment insurance), and estimation of data points “suppressed” by publicly available sources.

The Department of Labor’s Employment & Training Administration recently released a Training and Employment Notice titled “Building and Sustaining an Educated and Prepared STEM Workforce.” The notice provides a short introduction to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) occupations, along with the federal workforce system’s role in fostering it.

With that context, here at EMSI we thought this provided a good opportunity to show how you can analyze your region’s STEM workforce with EMSI’s Strategic Advantage (SA) web-based tool, which integrates dozens of sources to make custom regional labor market research fast, flexible, and simple. With SA, you can see vital statistics on jobs, wages, trends, projections, education levels, skills, and more for any occupation or occupation group, with comparisons to larger areas like states or the whole U.S. You can also see which regional industries are likely to employ workers in these occupations and and further analyze those industries. For a more education-oriented view, the tool allows you to see which regional training providers are offering courses and producing graduates in those occupations. And finally, you can view the occupations as a “career cluster” with various career ladders, or pathways, within it having various specializations.

For quick analysis, go to SA’s Educational Analyst module, and select the “Career Clusters” tool, then the “Career Cluster Data” report. Select timeframe and other options, making sure you choose to aggregate data by cluster. Generate the report and drill down in the “Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics” cluster for regional labor market information for STEM pathways and occupations. (Click the thumbnail for full-size image.)

To get started with more analysis, you’ll need to find a list of STEM occupations using the standard codes and titles used by the federal government. A great place to do this is at the Dept. of Labor’s O*NET site. In Strategic Advantage, go to the Career Pathways module and select the Occupational Analysis > Occupational Programs tool. This will allow you to create an occupation group using O*NET-SOC codes. Find and select the occupations and save the group as “STEM”.

With this list of STEM occupations (and with the individual occupations within it), you can use SA’s Career Pathways module to:

1. View O*NET data on knowledge, skills, and abilities (Occupational Analysis > Occupational Competencies)
2. Compare two occupations’ knowledge, skill, and ability requirements (Occupational Analysis > Compare Occupations)
3. See regional educational institutions that offer related programs (Occupational Analysis > Occupational Programs)
4. See the regional “labor pool” of occupations are compatible with certain STEM occupations (Transition Workers > Into Occupation)
5. Create maps of postsecondary completions in related programs (EMSI GIS)

To just get labor market information, you’ll have to define the list using plain SOC codes in Strategic Advantage’s Economic Forecaster module. These are the same as O*NET-SOC codes except without the 2-digit decimal extension, which allows O*NET to have slightly more detailed occupational categories. With this list, you’ll be able to:

1. See which postsecondary courses of study are linked to these occupations (Educational Analyst > Find Programs)
2. View extensive regional labor market reports with jobs, wages, trends, and projections (Economic Forecaster > Occupation tool > Jobs by Occupation, Occupation Report)
3. See which regional industries employ the most workers in STEM (Economic Forecaster > Occupation tool > Inverse Staffing Patterns)
4. Create maps using occupational data (EMSI GIS).

Here’s an example of chemical engineering jobs in California:

This is just a quick introduction to some of the capabilities of Strategic Advantage. To learn more, current users are encouraged to browse the online help within the tool, or take advantage of EMSI’s free, unlimited Customer Solutions support service. Prospective users can browse our main site for more information or tour videos.

For either Sales or Customer Solutions, feel free to call EMSI at (866) 999-3674 (8am to 5pm Pacific).

EMSI will be exhibiting at the 6th annual National Workforce Association conference, December 1-4 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Whether you’re a current or prospective customer, feel free to stop by EMSI’s booth to find out how we’re designing cutting-edge products and services to support workforce investment planning.

EMSI will also be presenting in two sessions at the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) Convention and Career Tech Expo, December 13-15 in Las Vegas. The session titles and descriptions are:

1. “Career and Technical Education: Driving Regional Economic Development” (Thursday, 2:15 pm): Success in the emerging economy is the presence of talent in the workforce, and career/technical education can be even stronger drivers of economic development. This session demonstrates how CTE can drive regional competitiveness within a career pathways model and by utilizing robust automated tools to analyze labor market information.
2. “A Demand-Driven Approach to Planning and Implementing a Regional Career Cluster Initiative” (Friday, 9:15 am): The career cluster framework has been shown to motivate and engage students by linking the classroom to the workplace. As educators consider the implementation of clusters, several key questions should guide their discussion. What are the high-wage, high-growth career clusters in the region? What pathways and occupations should be targeted so that student’s interests align with the needs of the economy? This session covers the data required to plan and implement a demand-driven career cluster initiative.

Recently, CLM Workforce Connection, Ocala Economic Development Council and Central Florida Community College—all located in Ocala, Florida—teamed up to initiate a shared, focused industry strategy for their region. In order to target the right industries and high growth, high wage occupations, they used integrated regional data and local knowledge to focus their resources on important local industries, and formed a direct line of communication with key local employers in those industries. As a direct result, they have now launched their targeted industry committees and have begun to attract and focus grant funding in critical workforce areas.

Read the full case study: Data-Driven Collaboration in Ocala

UPDATE: See the case study on the Department of Labor’s Workforce3One (free reg. req.).

This chapter is an excellent introduction to the background, definition, and goals of “workforce development.” It is one chapter in a forthcoming book on technical/vocational education and training. Posted here by permission of the lead author.

Citation:

Jacobs, R., & Hawley, J. (2008). Emergence of Workforce Development: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries, and Implications. In R. MacLean & D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Amsterdam: Kluwer.

Abstract:

Scholars and practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds have begun to use the term workforce development. This increasing usage requires sustained effort to create the theoretical background for the new term. The article reviews the reasons that the term has become more important, focusing on five converging concepts: 1) globalization, 2) technology, 3) the new economy, 4) political change, and 5) demographic shifts. This background serves as foundation for a new definition of workforce development that rests on a simultaneous consideration of individual, organization, and societal levels. Finally, the chapter discusses the implications of workforce development on the thinking of policy makers, researchers, and practitioners alike.

Download the PDF Version: Emergence of Workforce Development

A new study paints a grim picture of CA’s labor shortage in health care.

California needs to act quickly and dramatically to solve a serious health-care worker shortage, according to a study released today. Researchers with the Oakland-based Campaign for College Opportunity concluded that California’s 109 community colleges in particular need to expand classes in nursing and other allied health fields.

The shortage will reach crisis levels once baby boomers start retiring en masse in about five years, noted the study, which was funded by Kaiser Permanente, the state’s largest private health-care employer. There are too few nurses and medical technicians.

Read the article here.

According to EMSI’s occupational projections, California’s top ten in-demand health care occupations (ranked by total new job growth projected for 2007-12) are

1. Registered nurses (about 36,000 new jobs and 59,000 replacement jobs)
2. Medical assistants (about 11,500 new jobs and 19,000 replacement jobs)
3. Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants (about 11,000 new jobs and 18,000 replacement jobs)
4. Home health aides (about 10,000 new jobs and 12,000 replacement jobs)
5. Dental assistants (about 9,000 new jobs and 14,000 replacement jobs)
6. Dental hygenists (about 5,000 new jobs and 5,500 replacement jobs)
7. Physicians and surgeons (about 4,700 new jobs and 5,800 replacement jobs)
8. Licensed practical and vocational nurses (about 4,500 new jobs and 11,000 replacement jobs)
9. Medical secretaries (about 2,800 new jobs and 8,000 replacement jobs)
10. Physical therapists (about 2,400 new jobs and 2,500 replacement jobs)

Meanwhile, EMSI expects the state’s fastest-growing age groups to be in the 55-74 and 85+ year ranges, resulting in what the article describes as a “double whammy” of retiring health care workers and a larger senior citizen population in need of health care.

Demographic data suggest that the influx of Hispanic and Asian immigrants may well be the key to solving the worker shortage.  According to EMSI demographic projections, these populations are expected to grow by 11% in the next five years while growth of white non-Hispanics is expected to be basically flat. And the Hispanic and Asian populations are also overwhelmingly younger than other groups, with an estimated 81% under the age of 50 and 51% under the age of 30 in 2007 (compare to white non-Hispanics at 62% under 50 and 34% under 30).

Since 8 of the top 10 growing occupations require 2 years or less of postsecondary education (the exceptions being physicians/surgeons and physical therapists), it seems more than feasible for community colleges to rapidly recruit and train new health care workers from these populations. However, as the above article points out, many colleges are having trouble meeting student demand, with waiting lists for programs such as nursing. The message to California’s educational system is clear.

We’ve just been reading an interesting study from the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at UC-Berkeley titled “Building Institutions from the Region Up: Regional Workforce Development Collaboratives in California.” Although the paper is over two years old and describes initiatives that began in 2001, its insights into the regional collaboration remain as relevant as ever.

The study examined the outcomes of workforce development projects run by a handful of Collaborative Regional Initiatives (CRIs), which bring together government, industry, economic development organizations, colleges, and the workforce investment system. Its conclusions provide encouragement, but also a needed reality check, for those attempting to improve collaboration in regional workforce development projects.

Here are some selections from its conclusions (each paragraph is a separate quotation):

Regional collaboration can make workforce development programs more effective if the right partners are involved—from both inside and outside the current system. At their best, the CRIs produce more effective program and system outcomes than the other collaboratives studied. But as relative newcomers in the complex landscape of the workforce development system, they may be more effective as catalysts for long-term system change than as implementers of workforce development programs. Unless CRIs are able to organize broad and flexible workforce development networks so they can tap into existing expertise and resources as needed, these collaborations function essentially only on paper and thus do not make CRIs more effective than other institutions.

All of the CRIs are engaging with business in ongoing conversations that are helping to generate new employer interest in—and ownership of—workforce development.

But collaboration alone is not enough, without ownership. Whether the collaboration is broad and cross-sectoral (as in Fresno) or narrow (as in the SFITC), whether the organization functions as a collaborative or an intermediary, members need to have clear roles and responsibilities, with high levels of expertise. Collaboratives with a clear division of labor are better able to adapt when obstacles emerge . . . [and] including experts is critical to avoid reinventing the wheel.

It seems to matter little who conducts day-to-day management of the workforce development program, as long as accountability is clear.

A regional approach is also important, but not critical. Although economies work regionally, the labor market intermediaries that help disadvantaged jobseekers transition into the workforce may be located in a network across a region or at one organization

Developing career ladders is critical for upward mobility in a time when low-wage dead-end jobs dominate the landscape of low-skill work. . . . Nonetheless, these projects have revealed some contradictions that should be addressed. First, as the OCBC case showed, the career ladder for disadvantaged workers doesn’t necessarily begin where research is pointing it. Second, as the experience of the SFITC showed, ascending a rung or two in the career ladder is a process that takes years, especially for workers who have family obligations or no college degree. If a career ladder into a high-skilled job paying a family wage will take a decade to accomplish, this by definition is not an economic development strategy that responds to regional labor demand, but a supply-side policy.

Cross-sectoral (i.e., including business, government, education, and CBOs) participation is important, particularly if the partners are truly committed to the program—enough to help with internships. One key element in mobilizing such participation is the use of information, as in the OCBC and Fresno cases. The crosssectoral discussion about clusters, framed within a clear economic development orientation, resulted in the buy-in of stakeholders; . . . career ladders perform a similar function.

These cases raise questions about whether a focus on clusters, which is clearly valuable for economic development, can also work for workforce development. For instance, OCBC’s training program was part of an economic development strategy to enhance the competitiveness of local businesses within several growing industry clusters by producing high-skilled IT workers. The contradiction was that businesses saw it as meeting their short-term need for employees, while the career ladders approach is a long-term solution.

A final unresolved contradiction is the scale at which economic and workforce development goals are realized. Successful economic development strategies are regional in scale because the economy works across jurisdictional boundaries. . . . In contrast, successful placement of disadvantaged training program graduates works primarily at a local scale through local relationships.

These cases suggest that policymakers need to think more carefully about economic development approaches, questioning the assumption that workforce development needs to be regional and based upon clusters and career ladders. The regional approach clearly makes sense where there are support institutions, but where there aren’t, it can create an uphill battle.

Most of the collaboratives have not come to terms with the essential contradiction of the workforce development problem: the goals of regional economic competitiveness and access to employment opportunity for the disadvantaged are not necessarily
compatible.

The lessons for the workforce development system are twofold: rethink the relationship between the collaboratives, the WIBs, and the community colleges in order to maximize the impact of workforce development innovations on the system; and make
the system responsive to outside innovation, such as that produced by the CRIs.

The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration has released a 90+ page document detailing the various public and private workforce information sources available to researchers. Subtitled “Decision Making Assistance for Regional Economic Development,” the catalogue provides brief introductions to dozens of sources, along with comparison tables to help users identify the right source for their needs.

EMSI’s Strategic Advantage is highlighted on page 90 of the report, in the category “Data Integration and Analysis Tools and Services.”

Read the press release or download the catalogue in PDF.

WorkingVentures Publications: This arm of Public/Private Ventures publishes books and other resources to strengthen the field of workforce development.

Pennsylvania is doing great things with a demand-driven workforce system that connects economic development and industry-led initiatives with workforce training programs. Part of their planning strategy is to allocate more funding to occupations they have identified as “high-priority” using a sophisticated data-driven methodology.

Workforce3One has posted an overview of the state’s methodology (free registration required).

The basic steps are to start with industry clusters that important to the state and its local areas, identify occupations within those clusters, and then filter the resulting occupations for strong growth potential and high wages (must be “family-sustaining”). Finally, local knowledge and regional factors are taken into account to ensure that the high-level data and projections have not overlooked anything (for example, the impending arrival of a new, large employer, which would not yet show up in the state’s labor market data.)

This rigorous process is not only industry-oriented but also increases the likelihood that state and federal money spent on training will see a return on investment. Training workers for high-demand, high-wage occupations will result of higher worker incomes and subsequently fewer demands on public services.