Reskilling America’s Workers
The July 2018 report by the Council of Economic Advisors, titled Addressing America’s Reskilling Challenge, discusses many of the challenges American companies face in filling new job opportunities with skilled workers.
Among these is the loss of jobs due to automation (about 14%) and substantive changes in the tasks performed for existing jobs (about 32%).
Training Needs for Displaced Workers
Workers displaced because of automation can either learn to operate the automation tools (but there will be fewer of these jobs to go around than the number of jobs that are eliminated) or switch to a different industry.
In both cases, the displaced workers will need training. Substantive changes to existing jobs will also require some form of training.
Workers Switching Industries
As shown in the chart below, from 2005 to 2015 most displaced workers opted to change industry rather than move. In many cases, job losses in an industry indicate weakness in that overall industry, while strength emerges in new industries, so changing industries makes sense. Moving to a different area for a job in the same industry is risky if the future for that industry looks dim.
Moving also is a major endeavor for a lot of personal and financial reasons (selling a house, leaving friends, and so forth).
Best Opportunities
However, moving for a job in a new industry can mitigate the risks and expense of moving. After all, the best career opportunities exist where the most promising companies in the most promising industries are located.
Occupational Opportunities at OJT.com
At OJT.com, our state pages highlight the regions of the country that exhibit the greatest opportunities for growth in selected industries and occupations. Our industry pages highlight the discrete industrial subsectors that show the most promise, along with the occupations projected to be the largest and the occupations projected for the most growth.
Our lookup directory (to be completed in Q3 of 2018) will provide a list of all the training providers (schools and apprenticeships) for occupations and occupational categories, at the national, state, and city levels.