Report: R.I. must match skills to jobs

IN ORDER TO turn around the economy, Rhode Island must reduce the overall cost of doing business, change public perception about the unfriendliness of its business climate and face the mismatch of talent with job needs.  For a larger version of this graph, click <a href=HERE. / COURTESY THE NEW ENGLAND ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP" title="IN ORDER TO turn around the economy, Rhode Island must reduce the overall cost of doing business, change public perception about the unfriendliness of its business climate and face the mismatch of talent with job needs. For a larger version of this graph, click HERE. / COURTESY THE NEW ENGLAND ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP"/>
IN ORDER TO turn around the economy, Rhode Island must reduce the overall cost of doing business, change public perception about the unfriendliness of its business climate and face the mismatch of talent with job needs. For a larger version of this graph, click HERE. / COURTESY THE NEW ENGLAND ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP

BOSTON – In order to turn around the economy, Rhode Island must reduce the overall cost of doing business, change public perception about the unfriendliness of its business climate and face the mismatch of talent with job needs, according to a report from the New England Economic Partnership.

Through April, Rhode Island continued to have the second-highest unemployment rate in the U.S. and the highest in New England.

The Ocean State’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April was 11.2 percent. A double-digit unemployment rate is forecast for Rhode Island in 2012 and 2013.

According to a report from NEEP’s spring conference “Skills and People Matching: Where are the Jobs,” which was held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on Thursday, Rhode Island has lost 33,100 jobs since 2006.

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“Employers are looking for skilled and semi-skilled workers, especially for jobs in information technology, health care, science and technology,” said the report.
Job sectors that employ workers with post-secondary education are growing faster than other sectors, according the report, but there are job opportunities in trades where baby boomers are retiring.

“One of the mismatches causing the high unemployment rate has been jobs where there were few in-state applicants with the required skills,” said the report. “Workers who lost their jobs at the beginning of the recession in 2007 may not be qualified to fill job openings in 2012.”

In 2011, 40.8 percent of Rhode Islanders 25 or older had an associate degree, a bachelor’s degree or a graduate degree. Comparatively, just less than 50 percent of that demographic had the same qualifications in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

“This puts Rhode Island in a disadvantaged competitive position in the region in terms of labor-force qualifications,” said the report. NEEP projects that the demand for high-skilled labor in Rhode Island will increase in most employment sectors over the next decade and more highly skilled health professionals will be needed due to an aging population.
The U.S. Department of Labor said that more than 50 percent of the fastest-growing occupations in the next five years will be health care related.
“In Rhode Island, jobs such as medical records and health-information technicians and clinical- laboratory technicians are expected to grow,” said the report, adding that there will also be growth potential in so-called clean-energy production and environmental protection.
In Rhode Island, there is also a demand for semi skilled workers for positions that require strong vocational or on-the-job training rather than a bachelor’s or graduate degree.
In 2011, 8.8 percent of the Rhode Island population 25 years or older had an associate degree, compared to 11.5 percent in New Hampshire and 10 percent in the rest of the nation.
“State government agencies, educational institutions, employers and labor unions must work together to make sure there is a labor pool to fill local jobs,” said the report. “This labor pool must also be capable to compete on a regional labor market, otherwise job opportunities in neighboring markets will be missed or local jobs will be filled with workers from other states.”

The NEEP report stressed collaboration to develop a curriculum aligned with workforce needs.
“A greater investment in elementary and secondary education in Rhode Island would help students gain strong basic skills that will be needed in the job market,” said the NEEP report.
The report projects job creation in the Ocean State to take place in service sectors, such as education and health services.
The two fastest-growing industries in Rhode Island are information services and the high-tech industry.
From 2011 to 2016, the Rhode Island high-tech industry is expected to grow 2.9 percent year-over-year, compared to and estimated 2.1 percent in New England, according to the report.
The information sector is expected to expand at an average of 3.2 percent from 2011 to 2016.
Construction, manufacturing and financial services were hit hardest by the recession and, according to the report, have presented no signs of recovery.
“The current number of construction jobs is smaller than that observed in the mid-1980s,” said the report, adding that it projected few jobs from the financial sector and saw no signs that Rhode Island’s manufacturing industry would rebound. “The skills required in manufacturing are different than those required in service industries,” said the report. “Rhode Island’s skills gap is not only in high-tech but also in jobs such as personal-care aides, home-health aides, helpers in construction trades, electricians, plumbers, engineering technicians and medical technicians.”
NEEP said skills sought by employers include technical writing, communication, independent working, critical thinking and problem-solving.
“Rhode Island needs to improve its educational system and focus on vocational programs and retraining for displaced workers to provide them with the skills they need to compete in a changing labor market,” said the report.

Rhode Island’s current approach to matching skills to jobs has not been successful because of low completion rates, poor curriculum, little coordination between programs, outdated restrictions and lack of accountability by organizations, according to the NEEP report.
Across the region, New England states will continue to experience slow growth and slow recovery of jobs lost in the recession, according to a presentation at the conference by NEEP’s Ross Gittell.

Gittell, forecast manager and chancellor of the Community College System of New Hampshire, said that both the national and regional economies will continue to be affected by a week European economy and by weakness in domestic and regional housing markets.

“As the NEEP economists predict, our region will see some slow economic growth, including new job openings, over the next several years,” James T. Brett, president & CEO of The New England Council, said in prepared remarks.

“However at the same time, we hear from business leaders time and again that they cannot find the skilled workers to fill the positions available,” said Brett. ” We’re delighted to partner with NEEP to explore how public- and private-sector stakeholders can collaborate to better prepare our workforce to compete in the 21st-century economy.”

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Yet another ‘report’.

    The State refuses to make meaningful changes to the tax code because the unions run the state. How many State jobs have been lost over the last few years as tax revenues have fallen? ZERO.

    The State will cut aid to the disabled before they lay off a single protected union member.

  2. A report that explains the employment gap? Shocking insight. This something every employer knows well. Didn’t dozens of employers endorse and back that Neumont University proposal? They had it right – a total focus on employer needs in computer science. RI couldn’t recruit them, I wonder why?