If you ask the state’s employers about it, it appears the longer term is just not trying vibrant.
“The workforce challenges looming over the Massachusetts economy are dire and immediate,” AIM CEO and President John Regan mentioned Tuesday.
Following two months of declining enterprise sentiment amongst its members, the top of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts predicts a grim future for the state’s employers amid a nationwide scarcity of staff and rising charges of open jobs.
“The commonwealth is sailing into a demographic bomb cyclone, accelerated by COVID-driven fundamental changes in the way people approach work, that could leave employers gasping for workers at the very time that the commonwealth seeks to solidify its role as a global center of innovation, commerce and technology,” he continued.
Regan’s pronouncement, delivered as a part of his eighth State of Business handle as chief of the three,400 member enterprise affiliation, follows the discharge of the affiliation’s January and December Business Confidence Index experiences, which confirmed an about 5% two-month decline in confidence amongst employers.
The chief concern amongst companies, in keeping with the index and echoed by Regan this week, was that although they’re hiring, nobody is making use of.
“According to the most recent figures, Massachusetts has approximately 115,000 more job openings than unemployed workers; 240,000 openings versus 124,500 unemployed workers. But all that is merely a harbinger of things to come,” Regan mentioned.
The state is anticipated to wish many, many extra staff going ahead, Regan mentioned, as life-science, robotics, and different innovative industries proceed to growth round Boston, however the state’s personal numbers present the job development will far outpace the variety of staff accessible.
In January, the Biden Administration celebrated the announcement that the labor market had seen over half-a-million jobs added all whereas the unemployment charge hovers at a 50-year low.
It’s not that individuals don’t need to work in Massachusetts, Regan mentioned, however a part of the issue is the state itself. Workers want to have the ability to dwell in Bay State earlier than an employer can rent them, in spite of everything. Housing shortages, lack of dependable public transit, and almost the very best childcare prices within the nation aren’t a recipe for attraction, Regan mentioned.
“If workers and employers face skyrocketing housing, energy and health-care costs on top of transportation challenges and lack of child care and elder-care support, they will begin to look to new locations to work and raise a family,” Regan mentioned.
Regan capped his dire predictions with a name for lawmakers to do one thing concrete in regards to the matter, like chopping the state’s 5% revenue tax.
“We must moderate costs for both employers and workers who might otherwise move elsewhere,” he mentioned.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”