business backgrounder | employment & workplace
Mind the Gap
Daniel C. Brunell
Washington state might have 9 percent unemployment, but many jobs are going unfulfilled.
Hundreds of jobs in accounting, manufacturing and health care remain vacant because of a lack
of trained workers. The AWB Institute, in partnership with federal, state and local governments, is
working to narrow this gap — and put people back to work.
at a glance
More than 60 percent of available
jobs require at least a two-year
degree, making them out of reach for
more than the 1.5 million workers in
Washington state with a high school
diploma or less.
Despite budget cuts, the state’s 34
community and technical colleges
are providing important remedial and
workforce training classes. These
institutions work closely with the
business community to make sure
their workforce needs are being meet.
The AWB Institute, along with other
state, federal, local, charitable
and private groups, is working to
alleviate this problem by offering a
variety of options to business and
the unemployed to get workers back
to work and provide a safety net for
workers that may lose their jobs.
Boeing and other aerospace
companies are working to close
the skills gap by partnering with
community and technical colleges
and the K-12 community to foster
more interest amongst students in
manufacturing and the aerospace.
38 association of washington business
With unemployment hovering around 9 percent, it’s hard to imagine a job remaining
open for long.
Even so, according to the Workforce Training & Education Coordinating Board, the
state will be short thousands of accountants, technicians, fabricators and technology specialists by the middle of this decade. That’s because Washington’s employers cannot find
qualified workers to fulfill those positions. It’s what professionals in the workforce training
world call “the skills gap.”
According to Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, not enough younger
workers can fill the roles of their parents and grandparents. In a report released in February
of this year, the school’s Pathways to Prosperity Project found that more than half of
today’s young adults are unprepared to enter the workforce. This includes high school
drop-outs, college drop-outs and students who discovered their college or vocational program training doesn’t match employers’ needs.
And unfortunately, it’s a problem that’s likely to get worse.
average unempl