Aviation employer has many job openings, but few qualified applicants

 

After today's report on unemployment, we're taking a look at one area where there are plenty of jobs, but not enough qualified workers.

A number of American companies say while the pool of unemployed is growing, the specialized skills employers are seeking are especially hard to find.

"If you want a job this is definitely the place to be," says 20-year-old Sam Warby.

He isn't talking about a career fair or a four-year university; he's talking about his aviation program at Everett Community College in Washington.

Warby graduates in August, and he already has a job lined up at Boeing.

"I had the skills, the training and the education that they needed," he says.

Job seekers with that education are in short supply. So much so that companies like Boeing are struggling to fill their job openings.

"We don't necessarily have a labor challenge," says Michael Greenwood, a senior manager at Boeing in Seattle. "We have a skills challenge."

The company wants to hire between three and five thousand new employees next year. But he expects it will be difficult.

And the problem isn't just in Washington. Across the country, employers say they are facing a "skills gap" - not enough candidates with technical skills.

William Symonds, director of the "Prosperity Project" at Harvard says many young people are trying to enter the workforce without the necessary skills.

"We're not doing a good enough job preparing young people for the jobs that exist in today's economy," says Symonds.

In a report released earlier this year, Harvard university highlighted what is called the "forgotten half" of young adults.

"We've taken a very academic sort of 'one size fits all' to education with the goal frankly that most students are going to go to a four year college," says Symonds.

The Georgetown Center of Education estimates there will be 47 million job openings in the decade ending in 2018. Nearly half will require a technical associate's degree.

Boeing is trying to get ahead of the game by developing community programs to help address some of that "skill challenge" issue for the company.

For students like Warby the investment is already paying off in more ways than one.

"I am planning on Boeing paying for my engineering degree. And then go work for them as an engineer," says Warby. "I definitely start at a higher salary than my friends have."

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