Study gloomy for employers looking for skilled workers

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For more than a year, Wisconsin employers have begged for people trained enough to do their increasingly-complicated jobs.

A new study does not give them much hope.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Center on Wisconsin Strategy says almost 300,000 Wisconsin adults don’t have high school diplomas or GED equivalents.

Of the 140,000 Wisconsinites unemployed in 2005, only 3,300 got job re-training provided by the federal government.

The center’s Laura Dresser calls it a “skills mismatch” and it could hurt the state’s economy pretty soon.

Jim Golembski, who’s on a workforce development board in Green Bay, said his local tech college produced only four graduates for electro-mechanical maintenance last year.

There were 400 jobs open for those grads statewide – some of which pay $50,000 after five years.

Golembski says one problem is that people wrongly think manufacturing is dying and parents steer their kids away from it.

Golembski says parents believe it’s dirty and physically-demanding work. But thanks to high-tech, that’s not always the case anymore.

Tags: wisconsinnews, employers, skilledworkers