McKinsey Report Highlights Task Ahead for U.S. Workforce

A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute projects a daunting task ahead for the U.S. economy: create 21 million jobs by 2020. Oh, and in the near term, we also still need to get 7 million people back to work who are victims of the 2008-09 recession. Chief among possible solutions will be adequate training our workforce to fill vacant jobs in the future. That’s likely why Kris Deckard, executive director of Ready Indiana, was interviewed for the report.

McKinsey relays:

The research analyzes the causes of slow job creation in the period before the recession and during the recovery and the implications of these forces for future job growth. The research projects how the US labor force will evolve over the next ten years and creates different scenarios for job growth based on extensive analysis of sector trends. MGI’s central finding is that a return to full employment will occur in only the most optimistic job growth scenario. This will require not only a robust economic recovery, but also a concerted effort to address other factors that impede employment, including growing gaps in skill and education.

The report offers a range of illustrative solutions based on lessons from US states and other countries that MGI hopes will add to the national conversation on jobs. Findings include:

Recoveries are increasingly becoming "jobless" due to firm restructuring, skill and geographic mismatches between workers and jobs, and sharp decline in new start-ups.

The US needs to create 21 million new jobs by 2020 to regain full employment – and only achieves this in our most optimistic job growth scenario.

The US workforce will continue to grow until 2020, but under current trends, many workers will not have the right skills for the available jobs. Technology is changing the nature of work: jobs are being disaggregated into tasks, work is becoming virtual, and firms are relying on flexible labor (temporary, contract workers). These trends offer new opportunities for creating jobs in the United States, a trend that some companies do not fully appreciate.

Progress on four dimensions will be essential for reviving the US job creation machine: develop the US workforces’ skill to better match what employers are looking for; expand US workers’ share of global economic growth by attracting foreign investment and spurring exports; revive the nation’s spark by supporting emerging industries, ensuring more of them scale up in the United States, and reviving new business start-ups; and speed up regulatory decision-making that blocks business expansion and new investment.

Also view the executive summary and full report.

FCC Report: Media Needs to Serve Somebody

There was big news in the world of journalism yesterday (for those who follow such things and/or care what the Federal Communications Commission has to say) when the FCC released a 470-page report on the state of the U.S. media. In summary, their conclusion wasn’t exactly a positive one, with the overall finding seeming to be that American media isn’t serving the public. What’s most interesting — or perhaps most telling — is that the Democratic and Republican commissioners seemed to have two entirely different takes on the report. Imagine that. National Journal reports

Federal regulations designed to ensure that broadcasters serve the public interest are broken, allowing stations to dump local-news reporting and lowering standards for news ranging from international developments to government scandals, the Federal Communications Commission said on Thursday.

"Over time, court rulings, constitutional concerns, and FCC decisions have left a system that is unclear and ineffective,” the agency said in a long-awaited report on the U.S. media. “The current system operates neither as a free market nor as an effectively regulated one; and it does not achieve the public-interest goals set out by Congress or the FCC.”

The 470-page study turns the tables, with the FCC reporting on media outlets that usually are the ones doing the reporting.

To promote public-interest programming on public airwaves, the report recommends more disclosure from broadcasters. It also calls for C-SPAN-like public-affairs networks in each state.

Too often, the report asserts, the FCC rubber-stamps broadcast licenses without ensuring that the outlets involved cover the local community.

Further, the proliferation of Internet-based news outlets has not improved the quality of journalism, the researchers found.

“It turns out you can have an abundance of media outlets and a shortage of real news,” said the report’s lead author, former journalist Steven Waldman. At the root of the growing dearth of quality reporting, he concluded, is the fact that advertising is increasingly disconnected from content.

“If ad rates were the same online as they are in print, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Waldman said. In a first for the agency, the report urges lawmakers to consider the “positive benefits” of online tracking when drafting privacy legislation. Such tracking, the report states, offers a possible way for news websites to attract more ad revenue.

To help strengthen the public service potential of media, the report makes six broad recommendations: emphasize online disclosure as a pillar of FCC media policy; make it easier for citizens to monitor government by putting more information online; consider directing more existing government spending to local media; foster an environment for nonprofit media outlets to succeed; promote broadband access; and ensure that media policy helps historically underserved communities.

The highly anticipated report didn’t go far enough for Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who has long called for tighter public-interest regulations.

“Enlightened policy that promotes the public interest is basically glossed over by the staff report as having been tried and failed,” Copps said at Thursday’s commission meeting, where the findings were presented.

He took the report’s authors to task for “tinkering around the edges” by not calling for major overhauls. “In the recommendations, there is some hedging about whether all that consolidation we are living with today—all these local, independent stations bought up by mega-media interests—has been good or bad,” Copps said.

But Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell said that the report highlights the competitive and innovative nature of the media market. Regulations and policies will only hurt, he argued. “The government should keep its heavy hands off of journalism,” McDowell said.

McDowell stressed that the report is only the beginning of a debate over potential solutions.

The findings contained few surprises in their evaluation of the media market, noting that many traditional news outlets have been decimated by economic challenges and shifting technology.

So what’s your take?

Chamber VP Supports Literacy Report

A new literacy report from the National Commission on Adult Literacy is being lauded by Indiana Chamber VP Mark Lawrance.

Lawrance explains:

“The comprehensive Reaching Higher, America report is a significant research project with bold recommendations to better prepare our country’s workforce for the 21st century. It urges overhauling and expanding adult education and workforce skills training. That is what the Indiana Chamber has been advocating for in Indiana, as highlighted in our two recent reports on this area (including this year’s Indiana’s Adult Education and Workforce Skills Performance Report)."

Read Lawrance’s full statement here.

Workforce Challenge: It’s a Big One

Traditionally, when it comes to innovative state comparisons, all too often Indiana finds itself on the short end of the stick. That is changing in some areas, including a recent Indiana Chamber study on the state of our workforce.

Indiana’s Adult Education and Workforce Skills Performance Report found that 931,366 adults (ages 18-64) have not completed high school, speak little or no English and/or are in families that earn less than a living wage (twice the level of poverty). While the challenge may be daunting, the state is ahead of the game in its analysis and has a policy team in place working on solutions.

Patrick Kelly of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems helped conduct the study. He says Indiana is emerging as a national leader.

“It is entirely unique – there’s not a report like it that really isolates this particular issue,” Kelly says. “Other states have addressed policy and some measures of accountability, but none are as concise and focused on this issue.”

The topic is an Indiana Chamber priority. It should be for everyone.