Wisconsin doesn’t have enough skilled workers to meet existing employer needs. Worse yet, over the next decade, Wisconsin will be confronting a major worker shortage in skill clusters needed to staff our major industries. Addressing these issues means more jobs, more workers and more demand for commercial, industrial and residential real estate.

A new and comprehensive study on Wisconsin’s workforce problems and recommendations for addressing them was released recently. The study, titled Be Bold II, was conducted by Competitive Wisconsin Inc. in partnership with the world-renowned talent development company, Manpower Group. The WRA helped fund the study and forthcoming town hall meetings around the state.

The problem

The Be Bold II study identified the following key industry sectors that are, or will become, the drivers of Wisconsin’s economic future. They are:

1. Agriculture and food manufacturing
2. Finance
3. Insurance and real estate
4. Health care
5. Manufacturing
6. Transportation
7. Water management and research 

These industry sectors alone produce more than 50 percent of Wisconsin’s gross domestic product (GDP). Yet three of these sectors — manufacturing, healthcare and financial and related services — are already facing critical skills and talent shortages. The bottom line is too few Wisconsin workers possess the skills that employers need. This mismatch creates a situation where there are 30,000 job openings today, while at the same time, 250,000 Wisconsin residents are unemployed! We need a strategy for talent acquisition and development in Wisconsin, or this skills gap will dampen or destroy economic growth in our state. 

The solutions

The Be Bold II report presents three major strategies and eight operational recommendations for addressing our skills gap. They include the following: 

Strategy 1: Align talent development with economic development.

The goal here is to better coordinate and deploy all of our talent development resources with the goal of retaining and attracting good jobs and to compete globally for employers, talent and profits. Recommendations for how to do this:

1. Replace the existing Governor’s Council on Workforce Investment and the Governor’s Council on Workforce and College Readiness with a new Governor’s Talent Development and Acquisition Council (Talent Council).
2. Provide the Talent Council oversight of a $100 million Talent Development Fund to enhance the ability of Wisconsin workers, employers, educators, trainers, economic development professionals and communities to respond to supply and demand changes in critical skill clusters.

The goal here is to create a real-time, on demand information platform that allows all citizens, workers, educators, trainers and employers to receive and post data regarding jobs and skills they need or have to offer. Specific recommendations include:

1. Develop a comprehensive talent supply and demand projection for Wisconsin that examines the skills required by Wisconsin’s employer groups.
2. Develop the most comprehensive real-time workforce/talent data warehouse in the nation.
3. Develop a mobile application that provides job and career information on demand to everyone.
4. Leverage real-time data, innovation, and education and training best practices to maximize citizen benefit from Wisconsin’s world-class education and training systems, empowering citizens to engage in lifelong learning that enhances employability and employment security.
5. Support internships and experiential learning in targeted skill sets by enabling youth to enter the world of work by encouraging employers to align internships, apprenticeships and applied learning programs with the skill clusters roadmap. 

The goal here is to alert current and prospective employers and workers to Wisconsin’s ability to supply job creators, domestic and foreign, with the best rightly skilled talent in the world. Recommendations to do this include:

1. Assure current employers that Wisconsin can provide the talent needed for business expansion.
2. Market new capabilities outside the state.

In the weeks ahead, a series of public town hall meetings will be held throughout the state so the public can better understand the challenges we face and the proposed solutions in the Be Bold II report. Watch for notices for these meetings in your area and consider attending to find out more. Ensuring we have the right workers for the right jobs will ensure we have a thriving real estate market in Wisconsin.