Hartford Business Journal

14 Hartford Business Journal • August 27, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Matt Pilon mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com W hen Gov. Dan- nel P. Malloy took office in 2011, he laid out his vision for creating one of the global economy's "best-educated, most-skilled, highest-productive" workforces that would give every Connecticut business access to "quali- fied, skilled, job-ready" talent. While experts say the Malloy admin- istration has made progress on those goals over the past eight years, chal- lenges remain — a point the governor himself concedes as he enters his final four months in office. While Connecticut's workforce remains highly educated and produc- tive, many industries report difficulties filling positions, including manufactur- ing, construction, transportation and logistics and health care, to name a few. "There's a vast need across a lot of categories for good-paying jobs — $15 an hour or more, plus benefits — that are out there, and we can't fill them," said Pete Gioia, a longtime economist for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, who recently announced his retirement. The stakes sur- rounding workforce development are high for Con- necticut, which is expected to need to fill an estimated 56,000 jobs per year through 2024, in addition to facing major budget deficits. Adding tens of thousands of new or higher-earning taxpayers could take a major bite out of that red ink, while also tethering talent-hungry employ- ers to the region. "More people with good jobs, they buy houses, all of the sudden the hous- ing market's back on track. They buy cars. All this stuff feeds into positive momentum," Gioia said. Many use the term "skills gap" to describe employers' reported challenge in filling needed posi- tions. It's an imbalance between supply and demand that the state Department of Labor (DOL) says is tough to measure. The state's unemployment rate — 4.4 percent as of July — is at its lowest level since 2007, meaning the pool of available labor is constrained. Con- necticut's aging workforce and popu- lation outmigration in recent years is also causing headaches. Connecticut will need to attract more out-of-state college graduates, and keep the ones it produces here, to meet its workforce needs over the next few years, a major challenge for a state that's been fighting a brain drain. CT's web To understand how skills gaps might be addressed, one must grasp the vast apparatus that operates as Connecticut's workforce-development ecosystem. It's a broad array of agencies and service providers — that has perhaps best been described as a "system of Workforce Development Inc. Vast web works to meet Connecticut's labor challenges SPECIAL SERIES Clinton-based circuit-board maker Argo EMS, a division of The Eastern Company in Naugatuck, is among the many Connecticut companies that use training and hiring programs offered by one of the state's five workforce investment boards. The company, which worked with the Workforce Alliance, is led General Manger Dane Wentworth (seated). CT's federal workforce-development funding State workforce development systems are largely funded through the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). This key pot of money is comple- mented by additional federal and state grants and foundation donations. Here's how much federal WIOA funding Connecticut has received in recent years: 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Annual Total $37,516,772 $36,538,946 $39,317,394 $40,141,369 $42,400,577 $45,026,251 $42,214,344 Source: CT Department of Labor Note: Prior to 2014, funding was provided under WIOA's predecessor law, the Workforce Innovation Act. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED BUILDING CONNECTICUT'S WORKFORCE PIPELINE

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