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You are here: Home / Columnists / Workforce Development Solutions for Yavapai County

Workforce Development Solutions for Yavapai County

June 29, 2022 By quadcities Leave a Comment

Worldwide, Baby Boomers did not replace themselves in equal numbers (the current and future workforce).

Arizona Town Hall recently partnered with the Yavapai County Workforce Development Board to convene and facilitate a discussion with employers and workforce development professionals about labor market challenges within the county and beyond. A significant portion of the discussion revolved around data that outlines worldwide demographic trends such as the approaching “sansdemic,” which means “without people.”

The sudden mass exodus of Baby Boomers (workforce past). Whereas pre-pandemic, two million Baby Boomers were retiring annually, in 2020, more than three million retired.

Worldwide, Baby Boomers did not replace themselves in equal numbers (the current and future workforce).

Baby Boomers are the wealthiest generation in the history of the world and their children reap the benefits, including the option to work less than their parents.

Millennial men are opting out of work or working less than past generations.

The opioid epidemic has impacted labor force participation.

Local data trends identified in recent surveys completed by Yavapai County employers and job seekers/incumbent workers highlighted the following:

For employers, the single biggest issue identified was “not enough applicants.”

For employees and job seekers, the single biggest issue identified was “pay and benefits.”

According to a May 23 Politico article by Eleanor Mueller, there were two job openings for every worker seeking employment in March. Economists cite one reason for the mismatch as being a failure to effectively prepare workers for in-
demand roles. Many of the deficiencies are in sectors particularly crucial to a healthy supply chain, such as trucking and manufacturing. Mueller notes that the United States lags behind other wealthy nations in spending on training workers:

Here is how the U.S. ranks in spending on training unemployed workers as a percent of GDP, 2019:

  • France – 0.26%
  • Germany – 0.18%
  • Italy – 0.13%
  • Canada – 0.06%
  • U.S. – 0.03%
  • Japan – 0.01%

In the same article, Andy Van Kleunen, CEO of the non-profit National Skills Coalition, said, “We have let our workforce strategy atrophy, because we thought it was just going to be the engineers – the graduate-degree holders – that were going to solve our competitiveness posture. We need to be investing in folks at all layers of our workforce…” U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh stated, “Just because the job training piece of Build Back Better hasn’t passed, doesn’t mean we don’t continue to do our job, we get creative.”

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, 74% of hiring managers reported in 2020 that there is a skills gap in the current labor market. Labor Economist Rachel Greszler at the Heritage Foundation is quoted as saying, “It’s not just that there aren’t enough workers, it’s that the workers that they do have don’t have the skills that they need to fill these positions. And a lot of that has to do with [how] the U.S. is not teaching people the things that they need to go out into the workforce.” Automation became more prominent in business as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the need to reskill four in 10 workers.

Very much like what Labor Secretary Walsh said, in Yavapai County, we pride ourselves on having a solution-based, Kaizen mindset – continuous improvement. The way we used to do things has lost its effectiveness in a rapidly accelerating movement toward business realignment and labor re-skilling to meet current needs.

Here is where our best resources for skills training step in – the Business Assistance Center, located at 221 N. Marina Street in Prescott and operated by the Northern Arizona Council of Governments Economic and Workforce Development Division (NACOG EWD), is partnering with Yavapai College Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) of Northern Arizona to provide training for entrepreneurs and small businesses to start, develop and grow their businesses through strategic growth and operations planning and financial management, as well as job training grants, customized training, labor recruitment and development, proctoring, certification/licensing funding, labor market information and more.

We are fortunate in Yavapai County to have multiple resources such as these. It’s time to leave our silos and come together to serve, solve and sustain our economy and secure our place in workforce development innovation and success. QCBN

By Teri Drew

Teri Drew is the executive director for the Yavapai County Workforce Development Board.

Filed Under: Columnists Tagged With: Teri Drew, Workforce Development Yavapai County

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