Mid-Columbia Employment Looks Bright

By Pratik Joshi, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

Aug. 19–f you’re looking for a new job, a recent report by the Washington Employment Security Department may be of some help.

Health care jobs will be in great demand in the next decade, the report says. Engineers and scientists, educators, business and financial service providers also will have more job opportunities in coming years, the report says.

Also, the demand for workers in agriculture-related businesses, retail sales, office support and maintenance operations is expected to increase as the Tri-City economy grows.

An estimated 113,517 workers will be employed in a variety of jobs by 2014, the report states.

The data provides a sense of future direction of the economy, said economist Greg Weeks, who also is director of the labor market and economic analysis branch in the Washington Economic Security Department.

“It’s our best statistical guess,” which can be useful for work force training and college curriculum planning, Weeks said.

Growth and replacement of the aging work force will create jobs in the future, said Dean Schau, state regional economist. About 42 percent of the Tri-City work force is over the age of 45, Schau said.

But he warns a majority of the potential jobs in professions that require minimal training will be minimum wage jobs.

That sector will be “horribly competitive” if there are more people willing to take a low-skills job, he said. Technological advancements have helped businesses do more with fewer workers, he added.

Also, potentially high-paying jobs in the knowledge industry can be outsourced in the face of an economic downturn, Schau said.

To prepare, students need a broad-based educational system with an emphasis on science and math, said Lura Powell, former director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The Tri-Cities educational institutions, along with PNNL, will have to play a crucial role in preparing an educated and skilled work force and help businesses respond to various challenges to stay competitive, she said.

A lack of an educated work force in the Tri-Cities will push economic growth opportunities elsewhere, said Powell, the former chief executive officer of Richland-based Advanced Imaging Technologies.

Despite periodic ups and downs since 1990, the Tri-City economy has managed to outperform the nation and state in nonfarm job growth. The diversification of the local economy away from Hanford has helped the process, Schau said. High-paying jobs have helped sustain lower-wage jobs in the community.

Education by itself doesn’t provide well-paying jobs, but it promotes a mindset to learn new skills, Schau said. Tri-Citians are lucky to have a community college and a state university in the area that can help them grow and eventually find well-paying, fulfilling jobs, he said.

In the recent years, Columbia Basin College has begun offering programs in nursing, dental hygiene, radiologic sciences, paramedic, fire science, and medical assistants to meet a growing demand for health care professionals locally, said Lee Thornton, president of CBC.

The college also has strengthened its computer sciences and ag business programs, he said. The college has partnered with Lockheed Martin to train its computer science students.

Also, ag business students work on an experimental farm to help develop crops most suited for biofuels, he said.

“(The students) need to know the theory behind the work they are doing,” to be successful, Thornton said. And educators must teach for careers, not for jobs, he added.

The future work force must be prepared for the global economy, and that’s why the college is encouraging students to be involved in research and become techno-savvy, he said.

Thornton also wants to work closely with the local high schools to help students prepare better for college. He envisions holistic educational reforms — which would include strengthening adult literacy and basic skills — to have a work force with potentially more job or entrepreneurial choices than in the past.

Students and the workers of tomorrow need to understand that they have to be lifelong learners to be able to adapt to the fast-changing technological and economic conditions, Powell said. About 50 percent of the projected jobs in the next five years will be in computer science, engineering, life science, and health, she added.

There’s hardly any job that has remained untouched by science, math and computers, she said. These subjects need to be integrated more closely in the study plans of middle and high school students.

“Education is a core piece of growth,” Powell said.

Students also need to be mentored through internship with companies or research organizations like PNNL, she said.

Washington offers some of the best jobs in technology, medicine and engineering, yet it’s ranked 36th in awarding bachelor’s degrees nationwide and ranked 38th in granting undergraduate degrees in science and engineering, Powell said. For every 3,900 computer specialists the state needs, there are only 635 available.

Washington State University Tri-Cities already is working on a need assessment plan to identify how it can customize programs to help area businesses and tech firms, said LoAnn Ayers, WSU’s director of campus advancement.

The university is focused on its science and engineering program to help reverse a national shortage of students in scientific disciplines, she said. The new $24 million Bioproducts, Sciences and Engineering Lab is expected to help advance research and boost the local economy in years to come.

WSU’s viticulture and enology program also is designed to help students find jobs locally with area wine growers or become entrepreneurs themselves, Ayers said.

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