Articles
Workforce shifts as boomers retire
By Will Brown
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
For many in the baby boom generation, their hair may be fading to gray as their careers are fading to black.
It was the latter that Ed Gordon discussed with representatives from the region's business community Wednesday morning.
Gordon is a nationally recognized author and consultant who penned "The 2010 Meltdown: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis." He was the keynote speaker for the Workforce Plus-sponsored Our Community Forum that brought together leaders from across North Florida to discuss employment challenges as the baby boom generation retires.
"If the people in Florida don't do anything, you're going to hear this big sucking sound as all the jobs leave you behind," Gordon said.
The 200-person audience was asked to raise their hands if they considered themselves baby boomers. When more than 60 percent obliged, it underscored the importance of the generation that gave Tallahassee its most prominent business and community leaders.
In 2006, when the most recent statistics were available, Leon County had 44,194 employees ages 45 to 64, which equated to 32.9 percent of the workforce.
In a room filled with parents and grandparents, Gordon said it was their children's generation — those who will either enter or progress through the workforce in the next 20 years — that needed to heed his thoughts
If this area is to develop a highly skilled workforce, Gordon said parents should be encouraging their students in the sciences, technology, engineering and math, all of which he said will be critical in the 21st century's second decade.
In recently released FCAT figures high schools in the county fared worse in science testing as opposed to math, reading and writing. Workforce officials at the local and state levels have said the Career and Professional Education Act will help close the gap in those fields, and thus make Florida's students more competitive in a global economy.
Partnerships between the business community and educators are developing, but that is usually at the collegiate level largely because there are nearly 70,000 college students in Tallahassee. This is one method Workforce Plus and others in the area are using to keep students from fleeing upon graduation.
"Our region has to understand the needs of this newer generation," said Workforce Plus chief executive Kim Moore. "The challenge we are presented will get bigger if we do not maintain a skilled workforce."
Moore, who grew up in Madison County, understands the brain drain problem from multiple perspectives. She said getting leaders from various sectors together discussing this region's future can only assist in solving the brain drain riddle.
Our Region Tomorrow, the nongovernmental organization that emphasizes collaboration between nine counties, is an entity Gordon said may help workforce development in the coming years.
"The time to talk about it is now," said Our Region Tomorrow executive director Matt Doster. "There will inevitably be questions about growth. There will be questions about do we as a region want to appeal to a certain industry, and do we want to identify certain skill sets in the workforce that are optimal for this area."
Contact business reporter Will Brown at (850) 599-2312 or wbrown@tallahassee.com.
