Recently I shared information about a talent/labor development plan the Chamber is developing in concert with other community partners. You can find that blog post here. It contains great local data about what is happening with our workforce.
Another report worth reading was published a couple of weeks ago by the Pew Research Center. It is titled “The State of American Jobs: How the shifting economic landscape is reshaping work and society and affecting the way people think about the skills and training they need to get ahead.”
The Pew Center conducted a national survey May 25 to June 29, 2016 among 5,006 U.S. adults.
There’s a lot of information in the report but here are a couple of takeaways. First, the workforce is changing, people know it and they believe that new skills and training are the key to their future success. Fifty-four percent said it will be essential throughout their work life to acquire new skills and training. Many are already working on doing so with 45 percent of the employed adults surveyed saying they got extra training in the past year.
Individual initiative and a sense of responsibility came through in the findings. Seventy-two percent believe ‘a lot’ of responsibility for acquiring new skills and training falls to them, and sixty percent say that K-12 education should bear a lot of responsibility, too.
Anyway, the report is worth a review whether you are an HR director, a manager, an employee or a concerned parent wondering about the future of your children.