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Their view: ‘Can’t anybody here play this game?’

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First Responders 2019

<p>King coal fueled the industrial revolution and placed Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) prominently on the map during the early part of the 20th century. Breaker boys, miners and others worked in breakers, collieries and railroads throughout the region, helping to give rise to the country&#8217;s global dominance in manufacturing and new careers for people in the area.</p><p>A new study by the Institute for Public Policy &amp; Economic Development highlights recent trends in economic competitiveness for our region. It chronicles the one-two punch workers in NEPA experienced with the precipitous decline of the coal industry and the slowing manufacturing sector. Over two decades, the region lost 39,000 jobs in these fields, representing $1.5 billion in wages and $6.2 billion in economic output, according to the study.</p><p>Some of the losses, such as those in the coal mining industry, are widely recognized. Others, including job losses in manufacturing &#8211; our largest employer &#8211; remain problematic.</p><p>Optimists, like me, examine areas where the region is becoming stronger, if not a leader. The study lists five sectors that are ready for growth: health care and social assistance, logistics and transportation, infrastructure and construction, utilities and energy production, and advance professional services. Many of these jobs will require graduate degrees, two- and four-year degrees, certificates, or specialized training.</p><p>Our local institutions of higher education cover all of those areas well, with students completing more than 13,000 degrees annually in hundreds of fields of study. Our young workers are getting degrees more often, providing an educated workforce that is ready to help the five key sectors and others grow.</p><p>One important piece of data caught my eye repeatedly. About 150,000 of our residents commute outside our region to work, while about 81,000 workers travel to Northeastern Pennsylvania for their employment opportunities. We are, in effect, a net exporter of 68,000 workers. Nearly one-third of our workforce is leaving the region to go to work.</p><p>The expanding employment sectors are looking for qualified workers and at the same time, many of those potential employees are going somewhere else to work. Higher education must improve its efforts to match the education and training programs offered into a &#8220;broader workforce development pipeline&#8221; for our future workers, according to the collaborative study.</p><p>A positive sign noted by the Institute, though, is that the number of inbound commuters is growing faster than the number of outbound commuters, indicating that we are making progress in modernizing our workforce to match emerging needs.</p><p>The study further notes that many workers are in jobs that are becoming automated or more specifically, &#8220;automation-sensitive jobs.&#8221; We used to think of robots taking manufacturing jobs, and to some degree that trend has challenged traditional manufacturing employment. However, the newer trend is to automate jobs in many of the service industries, such as food preparation, transportation, sales and administrative support. The Institute&#8217;s study finds that 49 percent of workers in NEPA are in positions with a high risk for automation.</p><p>Notably, the careers that are less likely to be automated appear to match the forward picture for NEPA. Health care, education, management and social services are likely to continue to require skilled people in greater numbers. Regions with greater numbers of college-degree holders appear to have better prospects going forward. As such, private industry, public institutions and educational leaders will need to work together closely to provide an educated workforce that matches our local economy&#8217;s needs.</p><p>At Misericordia University, where I serve as president, our faculty are routinely examining the effectiveness of teaching and research, providing students with the best of classroom theory linked to hands-on practice through internships, applied research and service to others. Our healthy range of institutions of higher education linked to the private and public sectors is ready to meet and exceed the regional and national challenges of economic competitiveness for everyone.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Botzman</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/web1_botzman.jpg</photo0><caption0>Botzman</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Thomas J. Botzman</p><p>Guest Columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Thomas J. Botzman, Ph.D., is president of Misericordia University in Dallas.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Their view: Improving regional economic competitiveness by modernizing our workforce to match emerging needs