OLYMPIA—Have the state’s efforts to grow our workforce with training and career pathway programs proved fruitful? A measure passed by the House of Representatives this evening could get lawmakers the answer.
Tracking education program performance with labor market data provides certain information about workers, including how much they earn, whether they completed their degrees, employment rates and even the industries where they went to work.
“But what we don’t know and need to find out is which career graduates are hired into, what jobs they landed,” said Rep. Vandana Slatter, a Bellevue Democrat and member of the Future of Work Task Force, whose bill would add an occupation field to the data the Employment Security Department (ESD) already collects from employers on a quarterly basis. “This change would simply add what employees are doing at their place of work, their job titles.”
Washington would not be the first state in the nation to implement this requirement; Alaska has been collecting occupational data since the 1980s, and Indiana began last year. Some European countries such as Germany, Norway and Denmark also collect this information.
Rep. Slatter posed the example that that if a Washington graduate works for Amazon, the statistics do not currently indicate whether he or she is designing software or working in the warehouse.
“With accurate occupational data, the state would be better equipped to evaluate the effectiveness of training programs and help ensure that our students have the information they need to make good decisions on how to prepare for future high-quality jobs and careers,” said Slatter.
To address concerns from the business community about a new reporting requirement, the bill’s implementation would be delayed until the fall of next year, which would give them enough time to work out the details with ESD.
The lawmaker pointed out that businesses consistently report that they’re not finding the right talent to meet their workforce needs and that this bill will help solve that issue.
“To offer responsive programs that produce workers with the training employers are seeking, we need better information about the jobs that they’re hiring people into, especially as automation increases and occupations call for new and expanding skills,” added Slatter.
HB 2308 was passed out of the House on a 60-38 vote earlier today and now heads to the Senate for further consideration.