Gov. Rick Snyder revealed his vision for overhauling Michigan's job placement efforts during a Thursday morning address to the legislature delivered at Delta College, a community college near Bay City. In his speech, Snyder highlighted his plans to align the talent of Michigan's workforce with the needs of businesses and unveiled an early version of Michigan's new online jobs database, Pure Michigan Talent Connect.
The new website, MiTalent.org, is still in its first phase. According to a press release from the governor's office, the site features a Career Matchmaker, which determines industries and areas in high demand, and a Career Investment Calculator, which helps job-seekers pursue training. Snyder said the website will include a dashboard to keep track of the state's career placement progress. It should be complete in June of next year.
During Thursday's address, Snyder remarked the state had done well with programs like Michigan Works, but insisted the time had come for Michigan to consolidate and coordinate its job placement efforts. His plan would streamline the state's 25 job placement programs to fit the contours of 10 designated economic regions.
The heart of the governor's message dealt with shifting the state's focus on jobs from a training-centered model to one focused on career-building. He claimed thousands of jobs remained unfilled in the the state, despite an official unemployment rate of 10.6 percent. He cited engineering, nursing, welding and computer programming as areas needing skilled workers.
"Michigan companies report feeling the effects of a talent disconnect," Snyder said, according to prepared remarks. "The widespread retirement of baby boomers is leading to a loss of talent in the workplace and an increasingly technology-driven economy requires advanced skills that many of our workers do not have."
Later in the speech, Snyder drew attention to the difficulty the state has had retaining young people, many of whom are educated in Michigan but leave to find work elsewhere.
"Tomorrow's opportunities cannot be realized with yesterday's skills," Snyder said. "It's time to develop the next generation of talent. ... We need to align the aptitudes and career passions of job seekers with the current and evolving needs of employers."
One solution, Snyder said, is encouraging young people to adopt career paths early. He noted that several state-based mentoring and internship programs had been brought on board to work with his new program. He also urged a closer relationship between post-secondary schools and big business.
At one point in his remarks, Snyder brought up the federal Workforce Investment Act, which funds much of the "backbone of the state's re-employment system." He noted the act was up for reauthorization in Congress and said he would push for a rewrite so that state governments would have ultimate authority over those federal funds, as long as they met a series of designated goals.
Snyder mentioned key groups that his career placement effort would target for assistance: He said the program would help bring together veterans with willing employers, and immigrant workers were also a focus.
Snyder said he would petition the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to "renew and make permanent" the EB-5 program, which allows foreign investors to live in Michigan, but is set to expire in September of next year. In addition, he said he would lobby Michigan's congressional delegation "to work with me to permanently raise the cap on immigrant professionals and eliminate the cap for those holding a master's degree or higher from U.S. universities."
Snyder also spent some time speaking about those he called the "structurally unemployed," who struggle to find work due to lack of skills, illiteracy and trouble accessing transportation and childcare. He called the state's current effort to help needy families find work, the JET (Jobs, Education and Training) program a failure -- it's success rate is 27 percent -- and vowed to redesign it. The program is tied to cash assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) federal block grant.