Labor Report Details the County's Job Prospects
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That was the sobering news presented to the Berkshire Compact for Higher Education on Friday. But the report by the Center For Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University confirmed a lot of what compact members already knew — career success is dependent in great part on how much education you have.
"This data is truly eye-opening, it's the best data we've seen in a long, long time," said John Lipa, chairman of the Berkshire County Regional Employment Board. "This is going to show that the Berkshire Compact is clairvoyant."
The compact is a partnership of educational, business, civic and community leaders working to instill the concept of lifelong learning into the community as a way to grow a skilled work force and to pave successful life pathways for the region's residents. The report was presented after the compact's meeting at Massachusetts College of Liberal Art's Church Street Center.
There are 64,000 jobs in Berkshire County; at any time, there are 2,200 openings and 3,000 job seekers.
"The question is, if we've got 2,000 jobs, 3,000 job seekers, why don't we have 64,000 [filled] jobs?" said Lipa.
According to the report, it's because the skill level of the job seekers isn't matching the qualifications for the jobs.
 John Lipa, chairman of the Berkshire County Regional Employment Board |
Twenty years ago, high school dropouts and graduates could go into manufacturing and learn on the job; the ones who couldn't master the tasks — have the adaptability in reading, writing and math — got fired. Since then, the number of manufacturing jobs has dropped nearly in half in Massachusetts and employers are expecting workers with higher levels of skills to start.
Training is moving into the classroom, said Harrington, and investment in skill sets really has to start as early as the sixth grade. "It's really important for kids to have a plan."
In 1979, a high school dropout in Philadelphia could expect to earn $1 million over his lifetime working in the thriving manufacturing industry; nowadays, that same dropout in 2006 could expect to earn $450,000, less than half.
"It's also true here. If you're a high school dropout, you're not going to get a job," said Harrington.
Berkshire County matches up with the state and nation overall in terms of education, and higher than the state average for high school graduation, some college and associate's degrees. The state, and county, also has strong technical/vocational programs.
In fact, as of 2005-06, the county's 4.3 percent dropout rate is almost half that of Massachusetts. However, the county has lost population and what's left is trending older. That's no news to towns that have closed and consolidated schools over the past decade.
"We have a succession problem because we had all these baby boomers crowding the labor market ... and then the generation behind them was much smaller," said Harrington. In Berkshire County, the 45 and older population has increased nearly 12 percent while those under 45 have dropped by 9 percent.
That means jobs will continue to open up for those with the right skill sets to fill them. Not surprisingly, those jobs will most likely be in health care.
The strongest areas of job growth in the state are professional business services, health care and leisure and hospitality services. In Berkshire County, health care and related fields accounted for more than 11,000 jobs last year, up more than 13 percent over the past three years. There were more than 300 vacancies across all levels of the health care field last year.
Manufacturing overall has dropped more than 11 percent, although certain sectors are doing well. The creative economy is growing, adding 324 jobs over three years, an increase of 18 percent.
"What's the second most important source of employment in the area? The answer is the arts industry," said Harrington.
The problem for county educators and businesses is to anticipate labor needs and provide the educational basis for jobs that need to be filled. It means encouraging youngsters to continue lifelong learning and for employers to encourage further training and education. It also means educational facilities and employers have to communicate those needs to each other.
 Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Suzanne Bump addresses the compact. |
School Superintendent James Brosnan pointed out for example that the school graduates precision machinists for the manufacturing sector while others to go to college and return as engineers. "This presentation today proved exactly that point that we're on the right track," he said.
The Berkshire Compact is already far ahead of the state by initiating programs that reach out to middle schoolers. It's most recent effort, Berkshire County Goes to College, brought middle schoolers to college campuses across the county.
The collation of data is a state initiative designed as a tool for work-force development at the grassroots level. Each of the 16 regional employment boards are being provided with data unique to their areas to recognize their different labor dynamics and partners, said Suzanne Bump, state secretary of labor and work-force development.
"We hope it will lead to very specific strategies and very specific goal settings by each of the regions," said Bump. "And that these sessions that we are having across the state will be but the first step in bringing to the table work-force development planning that customarily hasn't been there."
