Thursday, June 14, 2012
By Jessica Fraser, Senior Policy Analyst
jfraser@incap.org
In our 2010 report, Indiana’s Forgotten Middle Skill Jobs,
we found that middle-skill jobs—those that require more than a high school
diploma, but less than a four-year degree—represented the largest share of jobs
in Indiana, and would continue to make up a substantial share of future
openings. In fact, more than 487,000 “middle-skill” job openings are projected
for the state by 2016. In 2009, middle-skill jobs made up 55 percent of all
jobs in the state, however only 49 percent of our workforce had the skills
necessary to fill those positions.
Indiana’s Jobs and Workers by Skill
Level, 2009
Sources: US Department of Labor & US
Bureau of the Census
In Pence’s comments
this week he called for improving the skills training and vocational education
for our state’s high school students. That is indeed important work and must be
part of a long-term strategy to provide Indiana businesses with the skilled
workforce they need to compete. Additionally, Pence put forth the idea of
regional “Indiana Works Councils,” and even though all the details regarding
these councils haven’t been released, they may be similar to the
state-supported sector partnership strategies, which have become a national
model and have shown great promise in closing the skills gap. At the same time,
Indiana’s most immediate skills needs lie within our working adult population. Our
study found that nearly two-thirds of the people who will be in Indiana’s
workforce in the year 2020 were already working adults in 2005—long past the traditional
high school-to college pipeline. Indiana
cannot close the skills gap without addressing the education and training needs
of our adult workforce.
Working IN Adults Age 20-64 in the Current and
Projected Population, 2005-2020
Source: Calculated by National Skills Coalition using population projections from RAND California Statistics
Additionally, the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey showed that 2,070,138 Hoosiers, over the age of 25, have only high school diploma or less. This means over two million Hoosier adults do not have the education or skills training they need to be competitive in the labor market. Of course Indiana needs to come up with long-term strategies to ensure that its young adults are getting the skills training needed to provide for the needs of the labor market. In the meantime, however, working adults must be the focus of the state’s short- term strategies to end its current skills gap.
Additionally, the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey showed that 2,070,138 Hoosiers, over the age of 25, have only high school diploma or less. This means over two million Hoosier adults do not have the education or skills training they need to be competitive in the labor market. Of course Indiana needs to come up with long-term strategies to ensure that its young adults are getting the skills training needed to provide for the needs of the labor market. In the meantime, however, working adults must be the focus of the state’s short- term strategies to end its current skills gap.
The Institute, with generous funding from the Joyce
Foundation, has put together a coalition of stakeholders called the Indiana
Skills2Compete Coalition (Coalition). The Coalition is made up of 23 members
representing 19 organizations, including; members of the Indiana General
Assembly, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, Ivy Tech Community
College, and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, just to name a few. The ultimate
aim of the Coalition is to close Indiana’s skills gap and to be an available
resource to policymakers working toward that end. With this in mind the Indiana
Skills2Compete coalition will be releasing its 2012-2014 policy platform which
will include a set of policy recommendations aimed at closing Indiana’s skills
gap. Stay tuned…
