East Hartford, Connecticut is yet another municipality addressing the growing skilled trades shortage. Last week, in an open-ended meeting between local business leaders, Senator Gary LeBeau and three state representatives, the agenda was the municipality’s inability to deal with a variety of problems due to a lack of skilled workforce.

Harold Harris, of Concepts and Plastics, a Manchester industry, said “We need a lot of tradespeople, but nobody is interested in that. Nobody is talking about sending kids to trade, because they can’t all be College level. You need another level that they can go to and earn a good living, and be able to provide society.”

Scott Livingston, of Horst Engineering chimed in, “We are reaching the point where we can predict when we are going to lose the key people that actually sustain us in business today, when you see retirements coming. There is a wave of [retirements] in the next seven years, when we will probably lose thirty percent of our workforce. We don’t create the next generation of people working in manufacturing.”

State representative Chris Stone recounted a similar experience at the Metropolitan District (MDC) where he is also a commissioner. “We are doing an $850 million dollar investment at MDC to improve out sewer system, and MDC is having a very difficult time finding the sewer line guys and gals, and the trades’ people – the electricians and plumbers – a very difficult time. The capacity for that type of work does not exist, and they are creating capacity. They are providing some of the training we are talking about.”

Solutions to the skilled trade shortage in Hartford 

Senator LeBeau said, “We have two generations of kids believing they shouldn’t go to manufacturing, that there will not be jobs there. And I think the same for science and math. We have to go down to sixth, seventh, eighth grade [and] show kids how there are really tremendous opportunities out there and have them say ‘I can work on photonics, I can work on lasers.’”

Leaders agreed with Stone’s assessment that there has to be an attitude change, as a beginning solution to the problem. “The regulations agencies pass are based on broad proclamations of the legislature, and we don’t get into the fine tuning of these regulations,” said Stone. “There has to be a change in attitude from the top, and if there is, these bureaucracies hopefully will make a difference.”

LeBeau put forth another idea he had found intriguing: “angel investing” or “early entrepreneurial investing,” that supports new companies, inventors, and entrepreneurs at their first steps.

“Thirty five other states have [programs] and Connecticut does not,” said LeBeau. “Last year $29 billion dollars were invested by ‘angel’ investors. I think $5 million came back to the state, and that is an incredibly small number. And I say ‘came back’ because where do you think these investors live? On the Golden Coast, right here. But we don’t give then any tax credit for these kids of investments, so the money goes out of the state to start businesses elsewhere, without capturing, in a sense, our fair share. And given the fact that we have tremendous advantages in the technology area, that there are wonderful kids coming out of the schools and universities, we can get them on he ground floor.”

Eliot Ginsberg, CEO of the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT), said that any decision for change or renewal must be made soon and it will come at a price.

“I am not sure that we are valuing time as we did in the past,” said Ginsberg. “If we can think we can wait five years, or ten years, we are talking about states that are hungry for the technology, states that are almost bidding for these companies. There needs to be a recognition either that manufacturing must be maintained in this state, and promoted, and increased, and we have a culture, that starts from the legislature, that it’s worth investing in it, or we have to chose not to [invest in technology and trades], and put resources into other things, and have our kids get their jobs elsewhere in the country.”

The state of Michigan has initiated a job retraining program called No Worker Left Behind. Keith W. Cooley, director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth says that the department has requested $40 million to help retrain up to 100,000 Michigan workers. In addition, $10 million has been requested to help train 3,000 nursing students and 500 nursing faculty members during the next three years.

Cooley says, “We have got to invest in our workers. We cannot allow them to be left in the lurch.” Cooley was speaking at the opening of a new call center, the Unemployment Insurance Agency’s Remote Initial Claims Center, in Saginaw. Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the USA, at 7.6 percent in December, 2007.

The No Worker Left Behind initiative promises to pay up to $5,000 a year for two years to cover college tuition or technical training. In order to qualify, workers must take a Michigan Works skills assessment test, have graduated from high school and earn a family income of less than $40,000 a year.

(Workers respond that such initiatives are not really enough. The problem with too many skilled trades openings is that industry needs to be willing to compensate workers and if this doesn’t come from industry it should come from the government. As one forum poster says, “Sure jobs are there, but doesn’t mean they pay well.” Maybe Cooley and others should think about subsidising wages instead of retraining unskilled workers. If workers are making enough money they can pay for their own skills upgrades. -ed)

Maine’s battered skilled-trades work force is about to get a big break from CIANBRO. Where last year saw hundreds of layoffs after two mill closings and other widespread layoffs in that state, CIANBRO says it will hire 500 new employees in 2008. Representatives say they will be needing “journey level trades, pipe fitting, pipe welding, iron workers, electricians, all those different trades, and we’re looking for those people who are under employed, un-employed that have the qualities to be a CIANBRO team member.” They add that if they can’t find skilled workers in the employment market, they will train new employees. The company already has more than 200 employees taking part in skill training programs.

CIANBRO, Main’s largest construction firm, recently took over the Eastern Fine Paper mill site. It will begin a new project in March, building modules for a Texas oil refinery. That project alone is budgeted at $7 billion.

You can search Trade School World to find schools teaching welding, electrical and other trades mentioned in this article.

For the week ending Jan. 19, advance figures for seasonally adjusted initial employment insurance claims was 301,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week’s (revised ) figure of 302,000, according to figures just released by the Employment and Training Administration arm of the US Department of Labor. California was the state hardest hit, with over 25,000 layoffs in the construction and service industries.

Here’s a look at some unemployment rates from around the US and the rest of the world. On the surface of things, Europe is recording some record lows in unemployment. Around the US, though, there are rumblings and grumblings about “swelling unemployment” (not everywhere, of course).

In Columbia, South Carolina, they talk about an unemployment rate that is going to be stuck at its current high rates well into next year at a rate well above the national average. The unemployment rate in Columbia was 5.8% in October. South Carolina’s home page, thestate.com headlines an economic slowdown: “S.C. economy to put on brakes.” Meanwhile in Waynesboro, VA, the unemployment rate has “swelled to 3.8%.” You know where we’re going with this, right? Just hang on.

Finfacts.com is reporting that “The Eurozone (EA13) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate hit a record low of 7.2% in October 2007.” Meanwhile, European Business Guide is reporting that The EU27 unemployment rate was 7.0% in October 2007. And Scott Jagow at American Public Media’s Marketplace summarises: “The jobless rate is the lowest its been since the modern E.U. was formed in 1993.” Still, though, with jobless rates that high, Megan Williams reports that Europeans are not all that happy. She cites rising inflation and other factors. Mark Perry, a professor at the University of Michigan notes:

In the U.S., a 6.0% unemployment rate in 2003 was condemned and criticized as a “jobless recovery” during the economic expansion that started at the end of 2001.
Bottom Line: In terms of unemployment rates, the U.S. economy, even during its worst years of recessionary labor market conditions like 2001-2003, is still better than the European economy during its best years.

There is a lot of rumbling in post replies to Perry’s blog that the means of measurement are so different that comparisons are irrelevant. One poster cites a comparison of the US BLS that quotes the American employment-population ratio as 62.7 percent while the EU’s employment-population ratio is 64.4 percent.

Where does all that leave us? Perry is obviously eagerly willing to trumpet the US economy and subtly (or not-so-subtly) bash Europe. As long as the means of measurement remain the same in each country or continent then comparisons year over year seem relevant. Is any area very badly off? Not likely or not at the moment certainly.

In any case, you should be sure to think carefully about broad unemployment statistics. As far as comparisons from one month to another or from one industry to another, it’s safe to assume that that statistics are reported according to consistent standards.

According to statistics released by the US Department of Labor today, the week ending Nov. 24, there were initial claims of 352,000, an increase by 23,000 over the previous week’s revised number of 329,000 claims. In unadjusted data, year over year there was virtually no change from last year’s claims.

For people in the trades, the news was generally not that bad. For example, layoffs in the auto industry in Michigan were down nearly 6500. California also had “fewer layoffs in the trade ands service industries” resulting in 5905 less claims. New Jersey’s 3,000 less claims were the result of “fewer layoffs in the transportation, warehousing, trade, service, and manufacturing industries.” Meanwhile, Texas was the only state with a comment on its increased claims, with “layoffs in the information [industry]” leading the way.

So what does it all mean? About a decade ago, high school guidance counselors wisely noted that it was a good bet for young people to go into computer and technology related careers. Many manufacturing jobs were all being shipped overseas. We’ve seen in the meantime, though, that that trend has turned and we now have a shortage of skilled labor while many software jobs have gone to cheaper laborers overseas. Alarms are being raised all over the country that the next decade will see high rates of retirement in trade-related occupations and not enough new bodies to fill the holes in the workforce.

Nothing’s guaranteed in life, of course, but it’s time to get the word out that trade school is a good bet, once again.

In spite of slow economic growth and recent bad news about the price of oil, the US dollar and real estate, labor seems to be responding with calmness. Jobless figures are not climbing, according to an AP report, “an encouraging sign that most companies aren’t resorting to large-scale layoffs as the country copes with continuing problems in the housing and credit markets.” So the news aint all bad…

Unemployment statistics released for the week ending October 27 (announced today) show unemployment claims are down slightly from the same period in 2006. In spite of some recent doom and gloom concerning the US dollar, the ongoing war in Iraq, fires in California, the employment economy seems to be doing just fine, thanks.

So stay in trade school and find your future.