WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
As befitting a region known for fostering innovation, a top competitive strength is the quality of the skilled workforce. While the presence of technically skilled and innovative workers has directly contributed to the rise in economic strength of the Arc of Innovation, the region is not immune to the workforce challenges facing the state and nation.
These new competitive challenges facing the United States from global rivals have been well documented by reports from a variety of sources, including the National Academy of Sciences, private employers, and Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat. These national problems include the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, despite often being viewed as the textbook example of a state succeeding in the new economy.
These effects have been confirmed by multiple reports by state organizations, most notably by the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (Mass INC) which has found that the state is heavily invested in new economy industries, but that those industries are finding their competitive advantage eroding because critical positions are going unfilled. This erosion of the workforce is only further exacerbated by the documented mass departures of young skilled workers, lured to other regions with promises of more affordable housing, a lower cost of living, and warmer weather.
These same concerns have been echoed in more recent work by the Massachusetts Skills Gap Project, which is a joint effort by the Commonwealth Corporation and the Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development to examine labor needs of state businesses and the available workforce. Their conclusion is that there is currently a skill gap for selected occupations needed by employers, and in the long run, there is serious reason to believe that Massachusetts may experience a worker gap and an expanded skills gap.
As a result of this region’s economic importance to the Commonwealth and its reliance on innovation, it is absolutely essential that the region continue to have access to the skilled labor needed to compete with regional and global economic competition.
