19E - CALIFORNIA'S EDGE CAMPAIGN

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The California Employment Development Department has forecast that the state will need 109,600 more Registered Nurses by 2010.' -- A report by the California Board of Registered Nursing suggests that California graduates nearly 6,000 nursing students every year but is losing almost that same number to retirements.' The health care industry faces shortages in a wide range of occupations beyond nursing, including laboratory technicians and respiratory and physical therapists.' . Advanced Manufacturing In a 2006 survey of members of the California Manufacturing and Technology Association, respondents reported that the single most important business challenge they were facing in California was "sustaining and/or acquiring a skilled workforce," more so than workers' compen- sation costs, energy costs, or taxes.' The California Regional Economies Project reports that "a major workforce challenge for the manufac- turing value chain is how to retrain current production workers for other opportunities. . . serving customers in more specialized and increasingly direct ways.'" 4 CALIFORNIA'S EDGE . Health Care . Professional and Management Services - As reported by the California Regional Economies Project, California's current economic strength is concentrated in the Professional and Management Services sector, which is projected for growth, but these jobs require increasingly higher levels of skills, which are not being met by labor supply.'" "Recent studies warn that once the baby boom genera- tion retires, more of the state's employ- ers may be unable to find workers with the skills they need to remain .. " competItIve. In addition, California's numerous tech- nology clusters, strong venture-capital foundation, and higher education institutions provide the state with an edge in emerging markets, such as bio-, nano-, information, and renewable energy technologies. However, each of these new industries will require workers with new skills. Finally, agriculture is one of California's largest industries, yet despite its impor- tance to the rural economy and to the state economy as a whole, there has been little investment in developing the sector's agingworkforce, which is characterized by low levels of basic education and high levels of poverty." 5 California Hospital Association, California Hospitals Challenge Nurses Union to Begin Addressing Nursing Shortage (January 18,2005), downloaded from hup:/ Iwww.calhealth.org!public/press/article/ 124/ media%20statemen t%20 11405. pdf. 6 California Hospital Association, California Hospitals Challenge Nurses Union to Begin Addressing Nursing Shortage (January 18,2005), downloaded from hup:/ /www.calhealth.org!public/press/article/ I 24/media%20statement%20 11405.pdf 7 The Press Enterprise, Too Few Answer Hire Calling (April 22, 2006), downloaded from hup:/ /www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_B_hosptechs22.22cd2461.html 8 California Workforce Investment Board, downloaded from hup:/ /www.calwia.org!docfiJes/CMTA%20Survey%20Report%20IEB.pdf 9 Collaborative Economics, Manufacturing in Transformation: Economic Change and Employment Opportunities in the Design, Production, and Logistics Value Chain (California Regional Economies Project: September 2004), downloaded from hup://www.labor.ca.gov/panel/espcrepcrmit.pdf. 10 Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy, Conditions of Competitiveness of California's Economy (California Regional Economies Project: 2004), downloaded from hup://www.labor.ca.gov/panel/espcrepmonocond.pdf. 11 California Workforce Investment Board and U.S. Department of Labor, Region 6, Farmworker Forums: Everybody Needs a Choice (May 2003). 19E-7