How digital readiness affects job retraining for labor market growth

Job creation has been a central issue in 2016’s presidential campaign, particularly how best to increase the number of available higher-paying jobs. This challenge is two-fold. First, federal policies must offer greater support for innovative technology-based sectors where the US can compete effectively in global markets. Clean-tech energy businesses promise to be an important source of new employment, with the tangible benefit of addressing other top national priorities—lowering our dependence on foreign oil, reducing our nation’s carbon footprint, and slowing climate change’s impact on the environment. Second, massive job retraining with significant federal funding will help workers without the necessary skills for employment in growing sectors remain part of an essential middle-class economy.

The importance of workforce retraining is underscored in recent reports from the Pew Research Center. Its analysis of government jobs data found that for the past several decades, employment has been rising faster in jobs requiring higher levels of preparation – that is, more education, training and experience. Policymakers should look at these separate Pew Center analyses in tandem—two critical variables in any equation for sustainable job growth. Unless many more adults move into the “digitally ready” category for e-learning, necessary job retraining may not benefit workers in labor sectors that are being left behind.