R.I. jobs growing but long way to go

A MODEST SUCCESS: A shipbuilding program at New England Institute of Technology was successful at training Rhode Islanders for jobs in the industry, but like many similar programs, it is too small to fill the demand. Fred Santaniello, foreground, director of workforce development and programs at NEIT, is seen with Teddy Small, a participant in the SAMI program, who later found a job. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
A MODEST SUCCESS: A shipbuilding program at New England Institute of Technology was successful at training Rhode Islanders for jobs in the industry, but like many similar programs, it is too small to fill the demand. Fred Santaniello, foreground, director of workforce development and programs at NEIT, is seen with Teddy Small, a participant in the SAMI program, who later found a job. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Editor’s note: In celebration of Providence Business News’ 30th anniversary, staff writers and contributors examined the stories and trends that defined the region’s business scene for the period.

Dogged by a high and persistent unemployment rate coming out of the 2008-09 recession, Rhode Island’s workforce has struggled to recover. But the state has seen progress recently.

In 2015, the Rhode Island economy created more than 8,000 jobs – the most in a single year since 2000. The unemployment rate dropped more than any other state in the nation – peaking at 11.3 percent in 2009, but by the end of 2015 dropping to 5.1 percent, the state Department of Labor and Training said.

Despite that, the historic shift that had led to manufacturing’s broad decline is stuck in neutral, according to DLT.

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In 1979, four out of every 10 jobs in Rhode Island were related to manufacturing. By 1989, the numbers had dropped to three out of 10, and a decade later it was only two out of 10. As of 2009, only one Rhode Island-based worker out of 10 was doing a manufacturing-related job, and through 2015, that percentage was unchanged, even if there were modest gains in manufacturing employment.

To some extent, turning the jobless problem around will require reimagining how DLT trains the unemployed, Director Scott Jensen told PBN in mid-2015.

“We’re not doing as good a job as we need to, to get our companies the folks they need, and they’re complaining,” Jensen conceded. “They say all the time: ‘I’d like to grow, but I just can’t find the workers I need.’ ”

Indeed, in fiscal 2011, while 2,665 people accessed DLT programs (some just for résumé writing), there was an average of roughly 63,000 unemployed people in the state.

The shift in Rhode Island’s economy from a manufacturing to a service economy from the late 1970s through today preceded the recession but was exacerbated by it. Since then, changes in training the unemployed and the state’s future workers are evident through such new programming as the Real Jobs Rhode Island and the Polaris MEP Rocket programs, as well as a long-running Summer Youth Work Experience Program coordinated through the Governor’s Workforce Board.

Rick Brooks, GWB executive director since 2011, says he has seen two adjustments in the state during that time.

“First and foremost, the highest priority has been to engage businesses as, really, full partners in workforce education and training. [That] training cannot be done by the public sector alone without businesses’ full engagement and leadership to identify what the needs and challenges are,” he said.

An example of that is the response to General Dynamics Electric Boat’s plans to expand its workforce, including at its Quonset Point facilities, to accommodate production of a new class of submarine. The defense contractor expects to hire from 3,500 to more than 5,000 in Rhode Island alone, with the most significant hiring increases starting in 2020.

Knowing that, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management in early 2016 provided a $712,000 brownfields grant to help build a Westerly Higher Education and Job Skills Center. The center will house 17 classrooms and accommodate up to 1,000 students a year who will study a curriculum developed by Electric Boat and the Community College of Rhode Island.

An additional priority has been placed on experiential learning for all levels of the workforce, Brooks said.

“This is something that is increasingly being incorporated in education at all levels: hands-on learning in schools, internships, work experience even if folks are adults, and apprenticeships,” he said. “We just know that is the most effective way to prepare somebody for work, to give somebody the experience businesses are looking for and to give businesses a talent pipeline.”

Historically, Rhode Island’s unemployment rate peaked in 2009, getting stuck at 11.3 percent for the entire summer, with a high in June of 63,971 unemployed. It remained at or above 11 percent from April 2009 through November 2011 – for two years and eight months, according to the DLT. By the end of 2015, it had dropped to 5.1 percent, putting Rhode Island in a tie with Maryland, Michigan and New Jersey, landing in the middle of the pack at 29th instead of at the bottom, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In February 2016, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo visited the Tech Collective “to listen to business leaders in a roundtable discussion about skills that matter,” she said in an advisory, noting: “our economy has momentum but we must do more to create a pipeline of educated and skilled workers. To reinvigorate our economy, we need to build skills that matter for jobs that pay.”

As DLT more broadly examines how it tracks training results – a measure Jensen acknowledged is necessary – sectors such as health care and construction are working through their own battles.

The skills gap in nursing has been part of the driver for the $220 million South Street Landing project in Providence, which will add not only a parking garage, offices for Brown University and student housing, but also a place for Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island to teach and train the next generation of nurses. •

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