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Iowa legislators discuss worker shortages

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By Dan Gearino | Monday, September 24, 2007 |

TODAY: (Updated 4: 37 p.m.) DES MOINES — Iowa’s economy faces a potentially devastating worker shortage over the next decade, fueled by the retirement of baby boomers and the lack of young professionals to take their place.

Legislators gathered today to digest this grim forecast and look at what the state can do to respond. The joint House-Senate committee will put together proposals for next year’s legislative session.

“You can’t afford to get it wrong because our economic future is at stake,” said Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo, the panel’s co-chairman.

Based on Census data, economist Peter Fisher estimates Iowa will have a shortage of roughly 198,000 workers by 2014. Fisher is an analyst for the Iowa Policy Project, a Mount Vernon-based think tank.

Business leaders say they already have trouble filling openings for high-skill workers. And this is before the wave of retirements expected in the near future.

“We have real issues getting enough engineers to meet our growth targets,” said Rod Dooley, a senior recruiter at Rockwell-Collins in Cedar Rapids.

His company, a high-tech manufacturer, has begun to hire more engineers fresh out of college because there are so few experienced applicants.

Dooley was one of a long slate of presenters Monday as the committee convened for the first time.

Rep. Roger Thomas, D-Elkader, the panel’s other co-chairman, said the problem will extend throughout the economy, not just in high-skill jobs.

“We need to bring in workers from all different skill sets,” he said.

Along those lines, Rep. Dawn Pettengill, R-Mount Auburn, wants to see the state do more to train young people who are not college-bound and middle-aged people who want to change careers.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to prepare the people who are left out right now,” she said.

The last group to take a thorough look at this problem was the Iowa Works Campaign, a coalition of businesses and organized labor. In a 2006 report, the group recommended an expansion and improvement of job training programs for all ages.

“Trends are not destiny,” the report said. “Iowa has the ability to bridge these skill and worker gaps, but it will take a considerable amount of political will and a sense of urgency, both of which must be generated by the state’s political leadership.“

Dan Gearino can be contacted at 515-243-0138 and dan.gearino@lee.net.