South Central Workforce Development Board meeting discusses growing the workforce
BOWLING GREEN. Ky. – On Thursday, the South Central Workforce Development Board met to discuss phase three of its annual four phase plan – reaching job seekers.
In the meeting, they discussed various sectors, such as new Americans, young people ages 16 to 24 who are not in school or not currently working, and veterans.
In addition, a big point of interest that they are tracking and hoping to provide information on to local employers – growing an even tighter workforce.
News 40 spoke to board president Jon Sowards, who said in three to five years, things will be looking much different.
Sowards says, “Those baby boomers are still in our workforce, and they’re still propping up our workforce. I think inflationary pressures probably help them stay in the workforce a little bit longer than they would have otherwise. But in the three to five years, they are going to move on through, and there’s simply not the numbers coming in behind them.”
Sowards also said the new American population increases by the hundreds each year in the area, a group he refers to as “hungry to work.”
According to him, the language barrier is a big hurdle for them to overcome when finding businesses that will accommodate them.
He also said thanks to the General Assembly, recently awarding them some funds. They’ll be rolling out a text-based platform to help reach and keep up with the younger crowd.
