Greg Cumpton presented recent Student Futures Project research to San Marcos personnel on Thursday, April 11th. This link directs you to the powerpoint that Greg presented.

Center director Chris King and research assistant Laura Stelling visited Tulsa on February 25th and 26th to discuss the CareerAdvance® Program. They met with Community Action Project staff, local employers, and local workforce experts. With CAP leadership and stakeholders, they discussed project processes, funding, sustainability, and suggestions for the future. Local employers and workforce experts expressed their positive impression of CAP and provided insights on job trends and prospects.

Ray Marshall, former Secretary of Labor under President Carter and founder and namesake of our research center, spoke to a packed house at the LBJ School on Wednesday, April 3^rd. The event was entitled, Adopting a Skill-Based Immigration Policy for the US: Promise and Prospects, and was sponsored by the Ray Marshall Center and the LBJ School’s Public Affairs Alliance for Communities of Color (PAACC).

Introduced at the event by RMC Director Chris King, Secretary Marshall spoke of the need for immigration policy in the United States to shift from a family-based to a skills-based immigration policy.  Marshall said that for decades US leadership has approached the immigration debate as a law enforcement issue, while other OECD countries adjusted their immigration laws to accommodate demands in the workforce.

According to Marshall, once US leadership recognizes that immigration is an economic policy issue, the country can focus its efforts on developing policies that consider the economic needs of the country, while providing legal status and workers rights to immigrants.  Marshall explained that international wage competition should not be used as an excuse to lower salaries and avoid employee training for workers.

Marshall has been at the forefront of this debate in recent years, as his policy ideas have gained traction. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), co-founded by Dr. Marshall, recently discussed how he has influenced the debate, referring to his 2009 book Immigration for Shared Prosperity; A Framework for Comprehensive Reform. The EPI article cites this work as a contributing source for an important agreement between the AFL-CIO and the US Chamber of Commerce to establish a foreign worker program.

Immigration reform is expected to be enacted in 2013 in no small part due to the continuing efforts by Secretary Marshall to bring the key stakeholders together.

An article by Dan Zehr, describing a collaborative report between the Austin Area Research Organization (AARO) and the Ray Marshall Center (RMC) was printed in the Austin American-Statesman on Easter Sunday. The Workforce Potential Project aims to connect non-degree holding laborers with jobs paying above $18/hr by offering degree and certificate programs.  In the article, Principal Investigator Dan O’Shea, explains that this group of workers deserves the opportunity for upward mobility; “we have a local supply, rather than depending on in-migrant workers, and that’s where a social equity piece comes back in – people who live here already are participating more equitably in the overall growth of the economy.” Dr. Chris King, Director at RMC, explains that “…what we forget is most of the people that we need to be getting better jobs and better skills for are already in the workforce.” He goes on to explain, “you need a little nudge to get a few more credits and that credential – that’s low hanging fruit.” The Workforce Potential Project also underlines the potential economic benefits that can result from pointed post-secondary educational programs, which deliver needed training in specific skill sets. By bringing some 30,000 workers into higher paying jobs, $122 million dollars of economic benefit will be generated by 2025. The RMC and AARO produced a press release announcing the publication of this report.

A recent study conducted for the Austin Area Research Organization by the Ray Marshall Center at the LBJ School of Public Affairs found that many jobs requiring less than a bachelor’s degree and offering attractive wages and good career prospects are available in a number of growth sectors in Central Texas.  These jobs would provide excellent opportunities for large numbers of individuals who have some college but currently lack a degree or certificate.

More than 200,000 Austin-area residents over the age of 25 have some college experience but lack a degree or certificate to qualify for current and projected career pathways.  Equipped with sub-baccalaureate credentials, these individuals can expect better career opportunities and lifetime earnings.  Central Texas can benefit from returns such as higher tax revenues and reduced social services costs and local employers will gain a better-qualified workforce.

The Austin Area Research Organization (AARO), a group of local business and community leaders, contracted with the LBJ School’s Ray Marshall Center to conduct research for the Workforce Potential Project (WPP). WPP aims to increase the number of Central Texas residents with credentials to enable them to obtain well-paid jobs.  The research focused on jobs that require less education than a baccalaureate degree and pay $18 per hour or more.  In the Austin area, this wage would enable a single parent with two children to become economically self-sufficient.

The Ray Marshall Center analyzed labor market data and identified 17 occupations that meet AARO’s education and wage criteria in four major industry sectors: Health and Life Sciences; Information Technology; Trades; and Administrative and Related.  Researchers conducted interviews with employers, educators, and labor market experts to investigate occupational prospects and employer hiring practices.

Health and Life Sciences	Information Technology	Trades	Administrative & Related
Registered Nurses	Computer Support Specialists & Security Specialists	Automotive Mechanics and Technicians	Bookkeeping, Accounting and Auditing Clerks
Diagnostic Medical Sonographers/Ultra-Sound Technicians/Cardiology Sonographers	Computer Systems Analysts	Electrical Power-line Installers & Repairers	Executive Secretaries & Administrative Assistants
Licensed Vocational Nurses		Electricians
Medical and Clinical Lab Technicians		HVAC Mechanics and Installers
Radiologic Technologists/Technicians		Plumbers & Pipefitters
Respiratory Therapists
Surgical Technologists

Austin Community College offers training and education in almost all of these occupations.  The outlook for continued demand in the specified jobs in the future is favorable.  The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the 17 targeted jobs will produce 2,720 openings annually through 2018.

An associate’s degree alone is often not sufficient to gain employment in the targeted occupations.  Specialty skill certifications are needed in some occupations and work experience is commonly required to secure employment.  Employability skills, such as good work habits and attitudes, are essential to securing nearly any good job in the area.

Implementing recommendations of the WPP is expected to result in improved career opportunities, increased personal incomes, and increased tax revenues in the region.  An economic model developed by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) and adapted for use locally by NCHEMS and the Ray Marshall Center estimates that by the year 2025, WPP could increase total incomes by $432 million (after taxes). Boosting associates degree and certificate holders by 30,000 by 2025 would increase local tax revenues by around $45 million.

The path forward requires a community commitment by educators, employers, and policymakers to improve the human capital of area residents.  Central Texas businesses can provide direct support for education and supportive services and pledge to consider qualified residents on a priority basis. Employers can contribute by providing opportunities for work experience, being flexible with schedules, hiring local residents, and collaborating with ACC.

To view the reports, click here.

Dr. Heath Prince, Associate Director and Research Scientist at the Ray Marshall Center, was quoted in the March 7^th edition of the Austin American-Statesman. Commenting on the Texas Fast Start Program, the subject of a bill in the state legislature to train workers in the skills demanded by local industry, Prince pointed out that these sorts of initiatives are often strengthened by the inclusion of a comprehensive set of support services designed to assist participants in remaining, and succeeding, in the program. The Ray Marshall Center has compiled research about similar initiatives in Austin and around the country. Referring to the capacity of effective training programs to be responsive to the changing skill demands of industry, Prince noted, “To the extent (training programs) can transfer that (responsiveness) to post-secondary institutions and calibrate a curriculum based on those changing needs, the better they are at training students coming through the program.” Read the full article here.

On Thursday, February 28^th, RMC Director Chris King flew to Washington, DC, to participate in the conference titled, “Workforce Intermediaries Sector Strategies in an Uncertain Economy; A Decade of Research and Practice” convened by the Aspen Institute and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The purpose of the meeting was to bring contributors of this work-in-progress together to discuss the chapters they had drafted as a group. Experts on workforce economics and sector strategies took advantage of this opportunity to sit together and discuss their research. Questions raised during the meeting included;

“How did the writing process shape how you think about your topic-were there things you wrote about that you didn’t expect? What is the main takeaway you hope a reader will get from your chapter? What is the issue you are still thinking about or reflecting on?”

Authors also presented findings and observations from their chapters. Dr. King gave a presentation titled, “Sectoral Workforce Strategies: What We Know….and What We Need to Know.” He spoke about training strategies and reviewed the evidence on sectoral strategies, career pathways programs, and bridge programs.

Dan Zehr, writing for the Austin American Statesmen, wrote a piece describing the difficulty that well-educated older workers encounter when trying to get hired in Austin.

In his article, Zehr quotes King, ‘“Austin is the hipster place, we put a premium on youth,” said Christopher King, director of UT’s Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources. “If you’re an older worker and you lose a job, it’s really tough to get back in.”’

The author goes on to explain the multiple reasons for why older Austinites have trouble finding good jobs; you can read the article here.

 

This is the first in a series of briefs from research conducted as part of the Texas Workforce Data Quality Initiative.  This brief examines postsecondary education outcomes for 2008 and 2009 high school graduates in Central Texas through December 2011. Click here to see the report.

The Central Texas Student Futures Project released a report brief on the factors associated with education and work after high school for the classes of 2008 and 2009. Click here to view the brief.