As technology evolves, so too do the skills needed to be a technology worker. Ensuring employers have access to the cutting-edge skills they require is a crucial component in regional development strategy, as an ecosystem cannot grow without talented people to grow it. To kick off the “Building a Workforce of the Future” panel, Burning Glass Institute Executive Director for Programs Stuart Andreason spoke to Conversation participants about how the skill needs of employers are evolving, and what that means for the Mountain West.
Regional economic development, which fuels innovation and accelerates product market entry, relies heavily on talent. Dr. Stuart Andreason, Executive Director for Programs at the Burning Glass Institute, highlighted how talent development is lagging despite its importance. For decades, productivity growth has remained stubbornly low, resulting in stagnant wages and diminished economic mobility he argued. In the 1940s, individuals had a 90 percent chance of achieving greater economic success than their parents; today it is a coin flip.
The implications of this productivity stagnation extend beyond individual prosperity. A survey of 15,000 small businesses revealed that the primary reason for their low capital investment in new technologies was the lack of available talent to effectively use those technologies. Without a skilled workforce, investments in innovation become unjustifiable, leaving businesses mired in inefficiency.
“What an accountant does today looks different than what they did five years ago, and what they will be doing five years from now. We need to be ready for how the skills we need for our jobs change, even if the function remains the same.”
Dr. Stuart Andreason
Executive Director
Programs
Regional development requires investment, innovation, and most important to Dr. Andreason, talent. To him, examining the skills of the labor force is a great way to understand the “DNA” of a job and a region. Over the past five years, according to his research dissecting online job ads, the skills needed for the average job have changed 37 percent — the most impacted jobs changing skills by as much as 76 percent — with most changes coming from the introduction of new technologies. He noted that most people understand the world through an “occupation lens” – that is, we know what the function of an “accountant” is. But what an “accountant” actually does in their work may change wildly over time, even if the essential purpose of the job remains the same. The Mountain West needs to be prepared to adapt to changing skill needs, even in supposedly “legacy” careers.
To underline the importance of the issue, Dr. Andreason offered the example of Massachusetts. On the surface, it looks like an innovation powerhouse, ranking highly on numbers of software developers and on computer science graduates. But digging deeper, the picture is not as rosy. Employment growth in the tech sector has stalled, and those with “frontier” computer skills are leaving the state, leaving behind tech jobs, which are increasingly looking like legacy work, not innovative work. Interestingly, one of the top destinations for Massachusetts innovators is the Mountain West, and Boulder specifically, lending credence to its status as an emerging innovation hub.
In his final comments before bringing up the rest of the talent panel, Dr. Andreason pressed his point that a talent strategy and an economic development strategy are the same, with skills being a critical measure of regional competitiveness. High-value, high-growth skills, like frontier software, are one of the key drivers of growth. Colorado and the Mountain West have a high concentration of these skills, and the region needs to make sure it keeps them.
