If you build it, they will come.
The start of baseball season is upon us, and so is a fresh two-year legislative session offering many opportunities to address our biggest challenges.
In the past several years, Michigan has rebuilt our economic structure: lower taxes, robust growth, and hundreds of thousands more job opportunities for Michiganders. But our new reality is that workers are retiring and we do not have enough talent in the current workforce to replace them. The potential consequence of this problem cannot be overstated: further business expansion could be halted.
Our member organizations drive one-third of the state’s economy. Almost every single one of them faces a talent shortfall. Some regions, like Silicon Valley are exporting that talent in droves, and we need to position Michigan to be on the receiving end of it.
The talent obstacle is tough, but surmountable. Governor Whitmer has already put forward two significant plans: the MI Opportunity Scholarship, which will prep new graduates for the jobs of the future, and Michigan Reconnect, to train residents 25 and older with new skills to meet demand. We have officially joined the Detroit Regional Chamber, Small Business Association of Michigan and Grand Rapids Chamber in support of the administration’s efforts and suggested a few ways to make these programs work most effectively. Cooperation and collaboration have been the key to Michigan’s remarkable comeback and we will sustain that growth by continuing to work together.
We’re in the seventh inning stretch of Michigan’s recovery – looking to the ninth, we need to be ready to claim victory in the talent reckoning.
