New York (Reuters):  Workers with specialized skills like electricians, carpenters and welders are in critically short supply in many large economies, a shortfall that marks another obstacle to the global economic recovery, a research paper by Manpower Inc concludes.  "It becomes a real choke-point in future economic growth," Manpower Chief Executive Jeff Joerres said. "We believe strongly this is really an issue in the labor market."

The global staffing and employment services company says employers, governments and trade groups need to collaborate on strategic migration policies that can alleviate such worker shortages. Skilled work is usually specific to a given location: the work cannot move, so the workers have to.

The shortage of skilled workers is the No. 1 or No. 2 hiring challenge in six of the 10 biggest economies, Manpower found in a recent survey of 35,000 employers. Skilled trades were the top area of shortage in 10 of 17 European countries, according to the survey. 

Oakland:  Last week, the National Network of Sector Partners released a study which summarized the results of interviews with over 50 companies around the country including Tyson Foods, Inc. from Lancaster County.  The report demonstrated company satisfaction in their investment in training with low wage workers.  For a downloadable copy of the the study summary, click here.

American companies tend to view their low-skill, low-wage workers as a disposable resource - necessary but transient, plentiful enough to hire and lose and hire again as needed. Like many forms of waste, this approach to human capital has the advantage of simplicity, but it's loaded with hidden costs. Chief among these is the constant expense of recruiting and training new employees. But there are other costs, too, like the stunting of employees' loyalty, ambition, and attention to quality. A culture of transiency, where paychecks don't pay the bills and opportunities for advancement are few or nil, is one sure way to wipe out any incentive to perform above average, to push for excellence, to get the details right.

Washington, DC:  Recently, the National Governor's Association published a report entitled, "A Sharper Focus On Technical Workers How to Educate and Train for the Global Economy" which addressed the need to look closer at the nation's need for technical workers in manufacturing and in health care.  To download a copy of the report, click here.

America’s economy depends on workers who are knowledgeable and agile and who know how to troubleshoot and problem solve in real time in real-world situations, whether in factories, in hospitals, in labs, or in any other workplace setting. This is especially true now because American workers and entire industry sectors are struggling to compete on a global playing field.

Manufacturing is a good example. America still needs millions of manufacturing workers. Despite considerable declines in recent years, more than 10 million Americans still work at manufacturing jobs. One recent study found that 32 percent of manufacturing companies surveyed report moderate to serious shortages in the availability of manufacturing workers and expect the situation to worsen in the next few years. And, as the recent economic trouble with the automobile industry has reminded us, manufacturing—with its well-paying jobs and its extensive supplier chains—has a huge impact on the rest of the economy.

New York:  Over the past two decades, an innovative approach to workforce development known as sectoral employment has emerged, resulting in the creation of industry-specific training programs that prepare unemployed and underskilled workers for skilled positions and connect them with employers seeking to fill such vacancies.

Based on earlier outcomes studies pointing to the promise of this strategy, Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) set out to conduct a random assignment evaluation to assess whether sector-focused programs could in fact increase the earnings of low-income, disadvantaged workers and job seekers.  The results were as follows...

1. Participants in sector-focused programs earned significantly more than control group members, with most of the earnings gains occurring in the second year.
2. Participants in sector-focused programs were significantly more likely to work and, in the second year, worked more consistently than control group members.
3. Program participants were significantly more likely to work in jobs with higher wages.
4. Program participants were significantly more likely to work in jobs that offered benefits.
5. For each subgroup analyzed, program participants had significant earnings gains as compared to their counterpart controls.

For a downloadable copy of the report, click here.