The Connecticut Business & Industry Association’s annual business climate survey found that executives’ attitudes toward the state are the most negative they’ve been in 12 years.
It’s an alarming number that caught most of the media attention, although it’s not entirely surprising. The business community has long complained that Connecticut isn’t a great place to do business. The state’s high taxes, exorbitant energy costs, and stiff regulatory environment are all off-putting to the 300 or so executives that said they had a negative or somewhat negative opinion of Connecticut as a place to do business, according to the CBIA survey.
Of greater concern, however, is how employers view the state’s workforce, long considered one of Connecticut’s greatest assets because of the state’s deep bench of highly educated and skilled workers.
The survey, which had 377 total respondents, found that only 32 percent of executives — down from more than 50 percent in previous years — think the state’s skilled workforce is one of Connecticut’s key business assets.
Respondents that weren’t bullish on the state’s human capital cited a decline in workers’ skills and a shortage of skills specific to their needs as two key issues.
These findings are a major punch in the gut to Connecticut, and pose the biggest long-term threat to the state’s economic competitiveness. If the state can’t produce or retain top talent needed by our major industry sectors — insurance, financial services, advanced manufacturing, bioscience, etc. — we have little chance of competing for jobs with states that boast much lower business cost environments (North Carolina, Texas, etc.) or highly educated workforces (Boston, New York, etc.).
The stakes are high. Baby Boomers are projected to retire in droves, which will leave a significant hole in mid- and top-level positions at Connecticut companies.
In fact, half of the executives surveyed by CBIA said they expect as much as 10 percent of their workforce to retire in five years; one in 10 employers expect retirement rates in excess of 20 percent between now and 2018.
State policymakers and educators must respond aggressively to rebuild the state’s talent pool. And the focus shouldn’t be entirely on investing in the state’s four-year colleges.
Advanced manufacturers need high-skilled labor, so more emphasis should be put on boosting enrollment at technical schools. Community colleges should play more of a role training the state’s health care workforce, including nurses and health IT workers.
On the university level, schools offering four-year degrees must pay closer attention to the “real world” demands in the workplace. Jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) related fields are on the rise and many Connecticut employers across different industries want workers with those skills. The state’s colleges must deliver that product. That doesn’t mean schools should eliminate English or philosophy degrees; they still have value. But a greater emphasis should be placed on enrolling students in degree programs that will lead to jobs in demand by Connecticut employers.
The Malloy Administration deserves credit for its efforts to boost STEM-related programs at UConn through its 10-year, $2 billion Next Generation Connecticut initiative that includes expanding enrollment and faculty at UConn, and renovating and adding facilities for STEM disciplines. That’s a good start.
But other innovative — and less costly — workforce development strategies need to be developed at more Connecticut colleges.
The state’s future economic competiveness depends on it.
