Gov pitches $240M retraining program
The state is flush with cash thanks to federal pandemic relief programs, and the Baker administration hopes to funnel a $240 million chunk of it toward a three-year workforce development plan.
It’s a goal rolled out Thursday by the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
“We’ve been training the unemployed and underemployed, but at a very, very low level compared to where the need is right now,” one official said. “Our plan is to scale up our response to reach over 52,000 people over the next three years.”
Although the unemployment rate in Massachusetts has dropped below 5% as of June, and below the national average, Latino and Black unemployment rates are consistently higher, at 12.5% and 11.1%, respectively.
With pandemic-era unemployment benefits set to expire for over 300,000 Massachusetts residents on Sept. 4, administration officials hope these training initiatives will help shrink that gap.
A McKinsey future of work report commissioned by the Baker administration predicts that 30,000 to 40,000 Massachusetts workers per year will need to reskill toward industries including health care, advanced manufacturing and IT. The pandemic deepened these gaps even further.
The computer and manufacturing industry has the biggest gap in need statewide: Administration officials reported that under 5,000 Massachusetts residents claimed unemployment in the field, while over 15,000 jobs remained unfilled.
On the other hand, over three times the number of workers in the food prep and serving industry have filed for unemployment compared with the number of available jobs.
The plan, which has yet to pass the Legislature, would leverage MassHire and community organizations to conduct outreach and work with companies to create apprenticeships and other programs, and with vocational and community schools and colleges for additional training and education needs.