Forecast for 2.1 Million Construction Workers
Obama's Council of Economic Advisors Forecast Jobs of the Future
The Office of the President released a report titled, "Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow" written by the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA).
This report, released on July 13, 2009, attempts to paint the future of the U.S. labor market looking to the year 2016. Findings from this report show significant effort needs to be put into the development of the future construction workforce.
When looking at that future workforce demand, CEA has built upon the traditional tool of occupation forecasting issued by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (whose 2006-2016 forecast data was compiled in early 2007) with the more current data provided by the Interindustry Economic Research Foundation in the University of Maryland.
CEA has determined the U.S. construction industry needs to build 2.1 million workers by 2016 (see Figure 2).
Further, the report shows and increase in the distribution percentage of construction workers across the labor market meaning construction will play and even bigger role in the overall economy (See figure 1).
The overall push of this report is the need to develop skills through education and training. The growth rates forecasted by CEA for high-skilled jobs, those that require an associates degree or post-secondary technical training, is faster than for those who obtain a bachelors degree (see Figure 6).
Though all of this data is nationally focused, for those of us in Michigan there is a call to heed: We must build Michigan's future construction workforce!
The Construction Council is gathering Michigan's construction industry to do just this very thing. We are building industry support of the K-12 and higher education system, creation and expansion of apprenticeships, preparing for the Green economy and developing partnerships with all levels of government.
To participate and contribute to this effort contact:
Brindley Byrd
(517)492-5575
|