workforce

The 21st Century Workforce Commission report offers recommendations for developing the nations new high- tech workforce. The report provides an analysis of how leadership in regional partnerships of education, business and government can effectively address critical shortages of skilled workers in information technology jobs.

The National Commission on Entrepreneurships survey results reveal that despite the media and Wall Street attention given to dot-coms, only 13.1 percent of recent college graduates would like to work for the start-up, Internet-based businesses given a choice. Fortune 500 companies were the preferred choice for 42.2 percent of the survey respondents, while 24.7 percent opted for small businesses (specifically not dot-coms). The survey was conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

The report describes the importance and
complexity of information technology work force issues, shares innovative practices from around the country, and lays out some options for government, industry, educators, and workers.

The Progressive Policy Institute report offers a new agenda for labor market policy to expand the winners circle created by the global economy. An agenda focusing on three areas of public policy is provided as well.

The review, prompted by the notion that high-technology was creating many jobs for the economy, identifies the number of workers employed in high-tech activities in 1996, and shows high-technology employment in 1986, its projections for 2006, and its growth over the 1986–96 and 1996–2006 periods.

The study examines available measures of skills and technology to shed light on the question of whether the growth of a skills gap can account for the growth in wage inequality and whether technology can be identified as playing a role in raising job skill requirements. In general, results indicate that skill requirements rose secularly between the early 1960s and late 1990s but show little evidence of the kind of acceleration that could explain the early 1980s surge in inequality.

The plan presents a comprehensive , multi-faceted approach to the information technology workforce shortage by providing initiatives to increase the supply of qualified technology workers. The plan will be accomplished through additional graduates of IT degree and certificate programs, IT training and retraining for displaced workers and current employees, customized short term training, and expanded and improved technical training in high schools.