‘Dire and immediate’ challenges face state’s employers
Demographic 'bomb cyclone' looming as demand for skilled workers grows
If you ask the state’s employers about it, it seems the future is not looking bright.
“The workforce challenges looming over the Massachusetts economy are dire and immediate,” AIM CEO and President John Regan said Tuesday.
Following two months of declining business sentiment among its members, the head of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts predicts a grim future for the state’s employers amid a nationwide shortage of workers and rising rates of open jobs.
“The commonwealth is sailing into a demographic bomb cyclone, accelerated by COVID-driven fundamental changes in the way people approach work, that could leave employers gasping for workers at the very time that the commonwealth seeks to solidify its role as a global center of innovation, commerce and technology,” he continued.
Regan’s pronouncement, delivered as part of his eighth State of Business address as leader of the 3,400 member business association, follows the release of the association’s January and December Business Confidence Index reports, which showed an about 5% two-month decline in confidence among employers.
The chief concern among businesses, according to the index and echoed by Regan this week, was that though they are hiring, no one is applying.
“According to the most recent figures, Massachusetts has approximately 115,000 more job openings than unemployed workers; 240,000 openings versus 124,500 unemployed workers. But all that is merely a harbinger of things to come,” Regan said.
The state is expected to need many, many more workers going forward, Regan said, as life-science, robotics, and other cutting edge industries continue to boom around Boston, but the state’s own numbers show the job growth will far outpace the number of workers available.
In January, the Biden Administration celebrated the announcement that the labor market had seen over half-a-million jobs added all while the unemployment rate hovers at a 50-year low.
It’s not that people don’t want to work in Massachusetts, Regan said, but part of the problem is the state itself. Workers need to be able to live in Bay State before an employer can hire them, after all. Housing shortages, lack of reliable public transit, and nearly the highest childcare costs in the country aren’t a recipe for attraction, Regan said.
“If workers and employers face skyrocketing housing, energy and health-care costs on top of transportation challenges and lack of child care and elder-care support, they will begin to look to new locations to work and raise a family,” Regan said.
Regan capped his dire predictions with a call for lawmakers to do something concrete about the matter, like cutting the state’s 5% income tax.
“We must moderate costs for both employers and workers who might otherwise move elsewhere,” he said.