Forward Janesville - TheReport - FirstQuarter 2019

I don’t make predictions. I’m can’t predict the future for Janesville area businesses. But like everyone, I do observe trends that give me hope or give me pause. Two trends I’ve been reading about of late particularly caught my attention. No topic gets more attention at Forward Janesville meetings than our workforce needs. Workforce readiness, workforce shortages, workforce attraction, and the changing landscape of work are daily topics of conversation. Unfortunately, it is a conversation often tinged with frustration. There is the stark reality of demography: Wisconsin’s workforce is getting older and our current level of population growth won’t replace existing workers let alone accommodate growth in job openings. More broadly in the U.S., at the end of 2018 there were 7.1 million job openings, which is about 1 million more than the number of unemployed workers. The worker shortage is not just a Wisconsin challenge. The labor market is responding in a variety of ways. Wages and salaries are climbing faster than at any time since the Great Recession. Companies are ever more aggressive with incentives. Compensation and benefits are not the only ways to influence footloose workers. Creating a strong culture—a place where people really want to work—is a popular topic in the business press. As I have written before, Forward Janesville and the broader community have a central role in the workforce challenge. Collectively we need to support our schools so they are absolutely the best they can be. Our improving road infrastructure is critical to our ability to attract labor from outlying areas. We need to promote and support our cultural and recreational assets to make Janesville a vibrant place to live and raise a family. And we need to invest in our downtown so that it once again becomes a genuine source of pride and a place where people become tethered to a sense of community A second trend in many forward-looking articles on how the economy is changing is the impact of technology on work. Here, the irony is that one central impact of technology will be the displacement of human labor with robots and artificial intelligence (AI). Keep in mind this is not just manual labor. AI could ultimately impact white collar jobs in a very significant way. So, now we have two trends—workforce demands and technological innovation— seemingly working at cross purposes on how they impact labor. What should we expect in 10 to 20 years? My read on the tech innovation trend is that it will likely create as many jobs than it replaces. The World Economic Forum predicts 75 million human jobs will be displaced by machines and software in the next decade. At the same time, the study predicts automation technologies will create 133 million new jobs. Many other studies come to a similar conclusion. Just as we have seen a slew of new job descriptions emerge in the last decade, I expect the same will happen in the next decade. Data analysts, machine algorithm designers, robotic application developers, and computer vision designers will be in high demand. Jobs that involve routine tasks or moving products from point to point…not so much. I am encouraged on this front because we are surrounded by impressive education and training resources that only seem to get better year after year. A tour of Craig and Parker High Schools is a great place to start. The people and programs to help young adults get a good start is just awesome. Blackhawk Technical College and its Advanced Manufacturing Training Center are additional resources that fit perfectly into this changing workforce challenge. The University of Wisconsin- Whitewater and its new affiliation with the University of Wisconsin-Rock County rounds out a local menu for advanced skill development in all of the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and math. The bottom line is robots and AI will displace some jobs. Just as we have had to adjust in the past decade, workers will need to adapt to a constantly changing workforce environment. Skills and aptitude will be rewarded. Workers finding their niche in the workforce through advanced skill training is paramount. 4 • W W W . F O R W A R D J A N E S V I L L E . C O M John Beckord • President, Forward Janesville • johnb@forwardjanesville.com C O U N T E R VA I L I N G T R E N D S