THIS TIME IT’S ABOUT TALENT.
In 2007, the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine of the National Academies published “Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future.”
The influential report addressed concerns over exporting not just manufacturing, but the United States’ R&D advantage in what the report called “today’s global knowledge-discovery enterprise.” The authors presented four recommendations and 20 actions they felt would enhance the nation’s science and technology enterprise and, by extension the nation’s competitiveness. Among them was this “best and brightest” recommendation: “Make the United States the most attractive setting in which to study and perform research so that we can develop, recruit, and retain the best and brightest students, scientists, and engineers from within the United States and throughout the world.”
Fast forward to 2024 and it seems the profound need to attract and retain talent has swelled well beyond science. In September, labor analytics provider Lightcast published “The Rising Storm: Building a Future-Ready Workforce to Withstand the Looming Labor Shortage,” which “shows how the deluge of Baby Boomers’ retirement, plummeting childbirth rates and historically low labor force participation will compound to create a deficit of 6 million workers by 2032. With the biggest impacts of this ‘perfect storm’ expected to hit the health care, hospitality and service industries hardest, it is critical that government and business leaders take immediate steps to address the workforce deficit.”
A release listed the factors: Eighty percent of the 5 million workers who have exited the workforce since 2021 were over the age of 55 and the average retirement age (despite claims people are beginning to retire later) has dropped to 61. The only growth in the U.S. labor force has come from immigration — “Foreign-born workers are keeping the economy afloat,” the report said, noting a mismatch between workers and available jobs and the fact that one in four doctors and one in five nurses in the U.S. are foreign-born. And prime-age men are a declining proportion of the workforce, in part because of issues such as substance abuse and incarceration.
Finding new ways to expand the talent supply will be necessary to bridge gaps across industries, Lightcast said. Meanwhile, educators and employers must prioritize skills development and adaptability over college degrees.
“One of the factors contributing to this talent deficit is that we’ve de-valued service, manufacturing, construction and other trade work while holding those requiring a college degree in higher esteem,” said Ron Hetrick, Lightcast senior economist. “That’s deterred a lot of people from pursuing these careers, despite substantial improvement in wages and lucrative career opportunities in many occupations in these sectors.”
“To overcome hiring deficits, Lightcast suggests organizations prioritize skill adjacency, upskilling, and development to build a future-ready workforce, rather than filtering out talent that doesn’t meet their specific skills requirements at face value,” the organization said. “This adaptable approach to trainability will provide greater agility and broaden the talent pool considerably.”
For the complete 69-page report, visit lightcast.io/resources/research/the-rising-storm.
