Workforce challenges are dire, immediate

What if you created an economy and no one came?

Companies across Massachusetts are urgently seeking workers. Takeda, the state’s largest life sciences employer, is actively working to fill more than 500 open jobs at all skill levels and locations in Massachusetts — and not just jobs for researchers and scientists.

There are a multitude of statistics about the state of the Massachusetts workforce, but here are the two you need to know:

• The state Department of Economic Research projects that the number of jobs in the commonwealth will grow by 21% by 2030; and

• Meanwhile, a new study for the state Department of Transportation finds that the Massachusetts workforce will grow by just 1.5% by 2030. The workforce challenges looming over the Massachusetts economy are dire and immediate.

Massachusetts employers are already struggling with labor shortages and lack of qualified talent — exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 — that have dealt a major blow to day-to-day operations. Companies across all industries, from biotechnology to retail, are unable to fill positions with qualified candidates as the commonwealth loses workers to lower-cost states.

According to the most recent figures, Massachusetts has approximately 160,000 more job openings than un-

John Regan

employed workers (289,000 openings versus 131,300 unemployed workers).

But all that is merely a harbinger of things to come.

The Massachusetts economy is sailing into maelstrom of demographic shift combined with a fundamental change in the way people approach work. The result is an economy that could leave employers gasping for workers at the very time that the commonwealth seeks to solidify its role as a global center of innovation, commerce and technology.

A recent study by MassINC projects that the working-age, college-educated population of Massachusetts will decrease by 192,000 people by 2030. The commonwealth will also lose some 92,500 of the working-age, non-college-educated people who drive manufacturing, the building trades and the hospitality and other service industries.

It is a foreboding landscape that could, in turn, inhibit the ability and responsibility of employers to create economic opportunity for the people of Massachusetts.

Associated Industries of Massachusetts and its members from every sector of the

Beyond Mobility, the Massachusetts 2050 Transportation Plan, held a community outreach event at Union Station in Springfield in September 2022 to get input on what people want to see in public transportation. Noemi Gomez, of Springfield, above, answers survey questions with Claribel Amy. (DON