State searching for ways to address dearth of skilled high-tech workers

 At the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board’s March meeting, board members and GOED officials bemoaned the lack of available skilled talent available to Utah companies and searched for answers to the problem.

At the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board’s March meeting, board members and GOED officials bemoaned the lack of available skilled talent available to Utah companies and searched for answers to the problem.

Ben Hart, managing director of business services at GOED, said several programs have been undertaken by state government and industry associations to address Utah’s workforce needs.

“Because we’re faster-growing than the rest of the country, we have to be sharper, so we’re doing more probably than anywhere else in the country,” Hart said. “But the question is, is it enough?”

Hart added that highly technical positions that go unfilled because of a lack of available skilled workers will affect the state’s overall economy.

“The economy is going to start to slow down, [and] our growth rate is going to start to slow down because, quite frankly, we don’t have the workers there,” he said. “That’s particularly true when you need the engineers, because for every one engineer you’ve got to have six or seven [support] people down the line. So across the spectrum, we’re going to start to see slowed growth. …”

Board member Jerry Oldroyd said that, for example, Utah’s aerospace industry has trouble finding enough machinists. Board member Brent Brown, an auto dealer, said his industry likewise has trouble finding people, from those who wash cars to those in upper management — a situation becoming more common in many industries because of Utah’s low unemployment rate.

“Hiring anybody, especially in Utah County, for instance, where the unemployment is just ridiculously low, just the whole concept of hiring a body right now has become difficult, let alone someone at the upper level,” Brown said.

Much of the GOED meeting touched on issues that are common in workforce need discussions: college graduates who leave the state for jobs paying more than those in Utah, the role of the education system to train people to meet industry needs, the role of industries or individual companies to address the labor shortage, the recruitment of skilled workers from outside Utah or from foreign countries versus training current state residents to meet the need, and the effect that Utah’s relatively low wages has on the problem.

The GOED discussion began during a briefing by Todd Brightwell, chief operating officer at the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCU), about EDCU’s recruitment pipeline — companies considering expanding operations in or moving operations to Utah. Board chairman Mel Lavitt was curious: “How many deals have we lost [to other states] because of workforce?” he asked.

“We haven’t heard that,” Brightwell replied. “We know that there’s a potential that that is an issue as companies have scrutinized that, but we haven’t been told, ‘You don’t have the workforce, therefore we are not coming.’”

Lavitt said “we don’t have them” when discussing the need for experienced, talented workers in Utah. He said a lack of available skilled workers is preventing Adobe from expanding beyond its current size in Utah.

“I understand San Francisco and I understand Silicon Valley, but it’s so big there that one [company] steals from the other,” Lavitt said. “We’re not big enough. There’s a lot of stealing going on, but we need to find a way to attract more senior talent to Utah. That’s where I think that we’re going to run into a roadblock.”

“Even the most conservative voices now are saying, ‘We’re running out of people to find,’” Hart said, mentioning Utah County specifically.

Some of the board discussion focused on Utah’s relatively low wages and the impact it is having on company’s ability to find workers.

“People that work in Utah want to live here,” board member Josh Romney said. “They recognize the benefits to be in the state, so they’re willing to take a pay cut, and it’s also cheaper to live here.” He added that companies “can pick people up for a bargain in the state because our wages are so low.”

Board member Robert Frankenberg said Utah needs to invest in recruiting workers from out-of-state, in part by showing off the state’s advantages. He said he recently met a waiter who moved to Utah from San Francisco, where a one-bedroom studio apartment was costing him $4,000 a month. “We’ve got the tools,” Frankenberg said. “We have to get after it.”

Board member Lorena Riffo-Jensen said companies also could turn to women and ethnic minorities, whom she said often lack the contacts and networks enabling them to land open positions. “I know we want to recruit people from outside, which is great, but a lot of times we’re not bringing in and tapping in to our own wealth of professionals here,” she said.

Hart said Utah is “getting more creative” in addressing the workforce issue. State government and trade associations have established “pathways” programs to get more young people interested in and prepared for careers in aerospace and diesel companies, and the next program will focus on information technology. Industry associations have made their own pushes, as have educational institutions setting up programs to educate and train people for certain industries.

He also said workforce issues will be a prominent element of the annual Utah Economic Summit in April.

Hart said a recent meeting with IT companies and trade association representatives produced feedback that “we want to do something,” but “everyone has a little bit different perspective on what needs to be done.”

Most believe more involvement by K-12 education would help, as would a broad marketing campaign alerting people to Utah’s workforce needs, he said.