October 15, 2007
ShopTalk: Minding The State's Workforce
Suzanne BUmp, Massachusetts Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development.
Bump was recently at the Workforce Central office in Worcester conducting a public hearing on the state's budget priorities for 2009. Massachusetts is about 90,000 jobs short of its peak of four years ago, and Bump said training may be key to filling those jobs.
By payroll and income, what is the largest individual sector in Massachusetts?
It's either health care or education.
Compared to past decades, is the number of start-ups in Massachusetts since 2000 up or down?
My instinct is to say that it's up.
How is the weakness of the dollar affecting Massachusetts companies? Is the state losing or gaining wealth as a result?
It's certainly a factor in the continuing off-shoring of all kinds of jobs. It's not our only competitive pressure, however, as we are losing jobs to other states as well as countries.
Do Massachusetts companies reinvest enough toward the training and education of employees?
Employers are coming to a greater appreciation that in order to get the skill level they need, what they need to be supporting is the acquisition of those skills for their employees by expanding employee outreach, to make more use of the workforce training fund, to get engaged with the workforce investment board and with institutions of higher learning.
How much of the bottom line should employers put toward training?
An increased percentage. It varies according to the individual sector, but in general, it's a wise investment for virtually any business to be making.
What does it take to make a business realize that more should be invested in training for employees?
They're smart enough to recognize the problem, but they should not be expected, on their own, to come up with the solution. That's where the workforce investment board, with its many partners, comes in.
In what region of the state is job growth most pronounced and why?
Over the past year, we've seen job increases mainly in the Greater Boston area, but also south of Boston in the Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton area and in New Bedford as well as in the Berkshires. The job growth that we've seen in Boston and Greater Boston are largely due to a higher concentration of rapidly growing industries such as those in professional, scientific and business services and health services.
What are Worcester's prospects for job growth in the near future?
Worcester County is seeing its population growth climb rapidly and is among the fastest growing counties in terms of population growth. And with the Worcester area at the forefront of the emerging life sciences industry, I think this bodes well for the region in the coming years.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments