Workforce Development in Rural America: The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce recently published a report on the challenges and strengths of small-town America. Researchers discovered that working adults in rural America are almost as likely as working adults in urban America to have a good job – an occupation that pays a minimum of $43,000 for workers aged 25-44 and $55,000 for workers aged 45-64.
More findings and insights below:
- The rural workforce accounts for 13% of the total 25-64-year-old population and holds a proportionate share of roughly 12% of the country’s good jobs.
- The number of colleges offering middle-skills programs is 13 times greater in very urban areas than very rural areas.
- Workers with an associate degree or some college hold a larger share of good jobs in rural areas than in urban areas.
- Across rural areas, the South has the highest rate of non-participation in the labor force (29%) followed by the West (26%).
- White employees hold a larger share of good jobs in rural areas than in urban areas.
- Women workers are less likely to have a good job in rural areas than in urban areas.
Meeting the Workforce Demand of Clean Energy: A recent report by the National Skills Coalition examined the labor supply and demand and potential talent shortages that may be generated by the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act. Researchers found that an average of 2.9 million jobs per year are expected to be generated by these investments.
Here are more details on the impacts of these new laws:
- 69% of jobs created by the laws will be available for workers without a bachelor’s degree.
- Newly created jobs are projected to pay a median hourly wage of $26.20 an hour or 10.5% higher than current U.S. workforce median hourly wage.
- Multiple occupations will face an anticipated labor shortage of 1.1 million workers with the necessary skills to fill these jobs.
- Approximately two in three jobs will be directly created by the three laws within construction and manufacturing, amounting to about 680,000 total new jobs.
Lessons from the New Skills for Youth Initiative: Advance CTE in collaboration with Education Strategy Group recently released a report that shares the challenges and successes of sustaining the work of the New Skills for Youth (NSFY). The analysis describes outcomes such as improved training and support for CTE teachers, increased usage of data for addressing equity gaps and expanded access to regional and statewide career pathways, among others.
In addition, the authors made the following recommendations:
- Form industry partnerships with intentionality for regional and statewide career pathways to ensure that partners have fully bought into the career pathways vision.
- Emphasize that projected successes from career pathways grant funds will not show up immediately.
- Advocate for dedicated line-item funding at the state level to help sustain organizational work.
- Provide one-on-one assistance to local leaders to help meet demand for scaling career pathways and support the needs of local sites.
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