Establishes an online database identifying regional skills and employment gaps and the skills and training needed to fill open and anticipated jobs

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Jeremy Cooney says this is needed

The combination of thousands of open, unfilled jobs and the shortage of skilled workers to fill them, as well as the loss of workers due to the pandemic and looming retirements, makes clear the need for a tool that employers, educators, training providers, economic development planners, policy makers and the public can use to proactively address shortages in the educational pipeline and skills gaps in the existing workforce. The Monroe Community College Economic and Workforce Development Center (EWDC) has developed such a tool - the Labor Market Information website - for its region, and this bill requires the Department of Labor to replicate and expand that online, user-friendly, data-driven tool to address regional labor markets statewide. Monroe Community College has successfully pulled together many sources of data to show database users what specific jobs are in demand, how many openings there are in the region, how many potential workers are recently trained in the skills needed for those jobs, and how to get the training needed for those jobs. In the words of the EWDC: "The overall goal of this resource is to deliver high-quality, relevant and actionable labor market data. Data is useful only to the extent that it may be analyzed and applied to create or support meaningful outcomes." The bill requires the Department of Labor to provide data that reflect the 10 Regional Economic Development Councils and the industries and economic development priorities they have already established, including focusing on jobs in healthcare, advanced manufacturing, applied technol- ogies, information and computer technology, and education.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.