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 On January 29th the Marin Economic Forum in association with the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce, hosted “Forecasting the Future: A Spotlight on Workforce Challenges and the Future of Work.” The conference was intended to share our thoughts on the national and local economy in 2019 and to dive into the topic of workforce development considering the challenges employers in Marin face in attracting and retaining workers. MEF CEO Mike Blakeley set the stage by noting the low unemployment rate in Marin (2.2%) is both a positive (people have jobs) and a negative (employers struggle to fill jobs) and doesn’t capture the fact many of our highest skilled workers are employed outside of the County. How we manage our future workforce will be critical to our economy.
MEF Chief Economist, Dr. Rob Eyler, provided an excellent overview of key economic indicators to be considered when looking at the national economy. Dr. Eyler acknowledged that the equity markets (where many people hold stocks and retirement plans) are going to continue to be volatile based on the uncertainty of things like our national political environment, a current trade dispute between China and the U.S. and even some geopolitical issues such as the “Brexit” (Great Britain’s potential withdrawal from the European Union). Dr. Eyler encouraged all of us to refrain from watching our portfolio’s every day least we stress ourselves out.
The big question was whether the U.S. economy was headed for a recession, as has been suggested by some economic pundits. In his view Dr. Eyler, of course supported by excellent data, confirmed signs of a slow-down but commented that the effect of any slow-down and how significant it will be is really unknown. As to the dreaded “R” word, Dr. Eyler felt that it would take a major event to trigger an actual recession despite indicators that demonstrate some likelihood.
We then hosted a panel on the topic of workforce development with Elizabeth Pratt from the College of Marin (COM) and Bruce Wilson from the Workforce Alliance of the North Bay (WANB). This panel dove into the issue of how Marin’s workforce is being trained for the jobs of the future, pointing out specific programs such as “CareerPoint” in Marin that provides training programs for job seekers and COM’s Career Technical Education programs.
Findings from a report conducted by the Marin Economic Forum that captured employer concerns regarding hiring needs and strategies in the hospitality and “applied business technology” sectors were shared with the audience. The report confirmed that employers are facing challenges finding talent with the right experience and skills, including “soft skills” like communication or conflict resolution. Both sectors are expected to increase the number of employees by 2023 so it was clear that COM and WANB have a future role to play with Marin’s workforce. Both organizations stated their need for employer input to assure relevant training.
In a Key Note speech Craig Nelson, Chairman of Nelson companies, which includes Nelson Staffing, shared with the audience the tactics employers can adopt to attract and retain workers. Besides the obvious measures such as increasing wages, employers are focusing on a solid brand reputation to attract employees as well as strengthening their benefits programs, including perks like subsidizing transportation, to offset the high cost of living in Marin that is a dominant theme in the challenge of hiring.
The program was closed by Joanne Webster, CEO of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce who shared a poignant story about the work-life balance: “We work 8 hours a day, we sleep 8 hours a day, and if we have to commute an hour each way to work that only leaves so many hours in the day for family or exercise or other things.”
In the end, as noted by Dr. Eyler, “if I knew the future I wouldn’t be here right now” suggesting that try as we might, we don’t know what our future economy will be. We do know that a big part of our economy depends on the workforce we have here in Marin to support our businesses that want to grow and keep our economic vitality strong. Its our job at MEF to make sure Marin residents are aware of these issues and to give them a platform to solve them. Forecasting the Future was a great demonstration of that.
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