Iowa business leaders, lawmakers hope to address skilled-worker shortage

DES MOINES - Business leaders continue to press lawmakers to support and expand programs to develop more highly skilled employees.

But how much in additional resources can be dedicated to such efforts during in what is expected to be a tight budget year? That remains to be seen.

Iowa has taken multiple steps in recent years to address its shortage of skilled workers. According to a state study, more than half of the state's job openings require skills that only a third of the workforce possesses.

Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said the state has put more than $40 million into workforce initiatives.

Iowa Economic Development Authority Director Debi Durham said there is a 'race for talent.” Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo, called it a 'real serious war” for talent.

Business leaders say their search continues for workers with the right skill sets.

'The matter of how Iowa can best attract, train, keep and put Iowans to work are the paramount issues impacting the state's economic future,” reads the annual legislative priorities of the Iowa Chamber Alliance. 'Policy-makers and private- sector leaders need to work together to develop a cohesive long-term plan to meet workforce needs.”

Low population growth also threatens Iowa's future economy, according to a Battelle Memorial Institute report published in December.

How the Iowa Legislature and Gov. Terry Branstad will address those issues is not clear. Although state lawmakers from both parties said they acknowledge the need for boosting Iowa's workforce, they were not unanimous in promoting a vehicle to do so.

McCoy said addressing immigration would 'create a larger pool of employees for the future.”

'The only way to get there is growing more Iowans,” McCoy said.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, told the story of witnessing the joy gained by a man who earned a job through a commercial driver training program. Gronstal said education is the key to expanding the workforce.

'Three hundred thousand of our workforce - that's one in six - doesn't have a high school diploma or GED,” Gronstal said. 'They don't have a very bright future. That's just a fact of life in our world. I think about those people.”

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said he would like to see the state find a way to improve upon its Skilled Worker Initiative. That program was launched in 2012 to address the worker shortage by certifying workers' skill sets and providing resources for those who wish to improve.

Branstad's administration said this year that more than 45,000 Iowa workers have been certified and more than 10,000 businesses support the program.

Paulsen called it 'probably one of the most consequential long-term decisions we've made in the last handful of years.”

'Some of the strides we made in the apprenticeship program, I think, were great advancements,” Paulsen said.

'And I think that also continues to send a message across the country - hopefully across the world - that Iowa continues to want to be open for business, to create opportunities for Iowa families and to make sure we have the workforce that matches up with the needs that are out there.”