COVER STORY

Richard Gustafson, chancellor of the Community College System of New Hampshire. Courtesy photo

The region's labor pool increasingly has its shallow parts, a trend that is prompting renewed focus on worker retraining and keeping more college graduates from migrating to other states. Steps have already been taken over the past year to address the issue, including funding a $1 million job-training fund, and companies have already been searching for critical help.

The challenge presented itself earlier this year when the New Hampshire Business and Industry Association surveyed its members and found that recruitment issues dominated the regular round-table discussions held across the state.

In response, the BIA held a conference last month entitled, "Workforce Worries: Coping with New Hampshire's Constricting Labor Pool."

"We kept hearing this issue of a restricting labor pool," said Jim Roche, president and chief executive officer of the BIA.

Companies have reported the number of applicants is down from recent years and skill sets are not what they once were. The conference aimed to ignite discussion on ways to alleviate the burden, including alternative schedules, site-based training, tapping into older workers, and an initiative by University System of New Hampshire Chancellor Stephen Reno to capture another 5 percent of younger workers who now leave the state upon college graduation. Some of the challenge is related to demographics, while some involves a changing economy.

"Many seasoned employees are leaving the workforce for retirement at the same time that half our college graduates leave New Hampshire," Roche said before the conference. "If New Hampshire employers can't find qualified employees, they'll expand elsewhere. The long-term implications for our economy are alarming."

Wildolfo Arvelo, president of the Stratham/Portsmouth campus of the Community Technical College. Courtesy photo

The region will have grave, long-term economic problems if the labor pool issue is not resolved. Businesses already facing higher energy bills that their counterparts in other parts of the country may consider outsourcing some work, possibly overseas.

The challenge is not just finding workers, it is finding skilled workers to fill some of the more advanced positions in manufacturing and other sectors, said Michael Power, president of the Workforce Opportunity Council (NHWorks.org) in Concord.

"We're in a labor shortage situation," he said.

State and business leaders have come out fighting, though. In addition to the new $1 million job-training fund, New Hampshire is refocusing on a "sector strategy" to foster economic development. This approach involves various stakeholders, businesses and state agencies, including Health and Human Services with welfare recipients seeking jobs and New Hampshire community technical colleges for incumbent-worker courses.

Power said the sector strategy seeks to identify clusters that produce good-paying jobs. In responding to business needs, the team collaborates with the companies, their vendors, regulatory bodies and schools that prepare existing and future workers.

"You talk with the whole industry," he said.

The college system is also able to tailor training to a specific industry, part of the existing partnership with the private sector, said Wildolfo Arvelo, president of the Stratham/Portsmouth campus of the Community Technical College.

"We also do a lot of outreach to the high schools to create a pipeline for future employees," he said.

The Stratham/Portsmouth campus, with a high profile at the Pease International Tradeport, is getting famous for its biotechnology and biomanufacturing instruction and its relationship with such industry giants as Lonza and Stryker Biotech. Arvelo notes other business partnerships, such as an incumbent-worker training program for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which graduated 160 people last year.

"We're always scanning the horizon to see how we can be helpful," Arvelo said.

Richard Gustafson, chancellor of the Community College System of New Hampshire, described it as a "symbiotic relationship," the interaction among private and public organizations and the system's seven locations across the state. Each campus has a business training center as part of an established outreach program.

The colleges also work closely with the Workforce Opportunity Council, and various state agencies. The collaboration effectively creates a virtual phone tree for businesses seeking assistance.