September 22, 2011

Where should federal dollars be spent for worker training?

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Much of the debate in the Other Washington these days is about what the federal government can or cannot do to help boost the economy. The debate is crucially important for the country, but it rarely has much impact at the local level -- until this time of year.

Last month, the Seattle-King County Workforce Development Council (WDC) completed its first-ever Talent Pipeline Study, which estimates employment shortages and surpluses within three main sectors: health care, manufacturing and transportation/logistics. The results of the study estimated that there will be demand for about 55,700 job openings in the region for these three fields between 2014 and 2019. About 19,400 of these jobs will need to be created in the next five years.

"The study is a different way of looking at the labor market," said Marléna Sessions, executive director of the Seattle-King County WDC. "For the first time, we're seeing supply and demand at the occupation level, which gives the community important new information for planning workforce programs."

Then, just this week, the state's Employment Security Department (ESD) announced that it will distribute more than $44 million this fiscal year in federal funds to the 12 WDCs scattered across the state to help job seekers upgrade their skills so they can find work more easily.

The funding, which comes annually from the U.S. Department of Labor through the Workforce Investment Act, has undergone some heavy federal budget cuts recently, so Washington state will have about $3.3 million less to work with for fiscal year 2011-12. However, the infusion of cash is much needed to help the WDCs provide counseling, skill assessments, job-search assistance and training to laid-off workers, low-income adults, and low-income or disadvantaged young people through local WorkSource offices.

"The number-one goal of WorkSource is to put people to work, and we do that through personalized assistance that looks both at their work skills and their job-hunting skills," said ESD commissioner Paul Trause. "In the end, employers gain access to a higher-caliber workforce, and workers can build a brighter future for their families."

ESD said the federal dollars will be allocated based on population, unemployment levels and number of disadvantaged people. Not surprisingly, King County will get the largest slice of the pie at $11.9 million, followed by Snohomish County ($4.57 million), Southwest Washington ($4.08 million) and the Pacific Mountain region ($3.39 million), which includes Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific and Thurston counties.

The question now is where to spend this money so it will do the most good for job seekers. That's where the Talent Pipeline study comes in handy. Here are a few of the key findings from the report:

• At least four of the five highest-demand jobs in all three industries will face a shortage of trained workers, especially in the transportation and logistics field.
• In health care, the highest-demand jobs include home health aides, registered nurses and medical scientists.
• In manufacturing, high-demand jobs include low-wage jobs, such as shipping/receiving/traffic clerks and team assemblers, as well as higher-paid logisticians and mechanical engineers.
• All types of engineers are expected to continue to be in short supply in manufacturing.

"This funding comes at a critical time when our region is seeing employers' needs for qualified individuals to be trained and retrained for available jobs," Sessions said. "Industries such as health care, information technology, maritime and interactive media have unique local needs that WorkSource can meet with trained and re-trained workers, both now and in the future."

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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economy, government, health care, manufacturing, training

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