This week, thousands of businesspeople gathered in Washington at the World Gas Conference under the theme of “Fueling the Future” to discuss the changing energy landscape.
This is a story we know well: Access to affordable, U.S. natural gas supplies has led to cheaper electricity bills for consumers, cleaner air in our communities, a competitive edge, and more manufacturing jobs in downstream industries such as plastics and chemicals. Today, because of the availability of affordable natural gas, petrochemical companies from around the world are investing in new U.S. production capacity, creating jobs and opportunity across our country.
While a lot is going right, one issue we must seriously consider is how best to address the shortage of skilled labor here in the U.S.
Today’s historic tightness in the labor market, combined with underinvestment in technical skills education and the looming retirement of the baby boomer generation, has made it challenging for our industry to fill job openings for welders, pipefitters, electricians, and other technically-skilled workers.
In Houston, our company, LyondellBasell, is currently investing in growth projects worth more than $3.1 billion. But employers here need to hire 75,000 additional skilled workers each year to keep up with our current pace of growth, according to numbers from the Greater Houston Partnership.
More broadly, according to a 2017 study from the National Association of Manufacturers, or NAM, two million manufacturing jobs are expected to go unfilled over the next ten years because of a shortage of skilled laborers.
In just the past six years, the North American chemical industry has announced approximately 300 new projects valued at roughly $185 billion to meet growing global demand for plastics and chemicals around the world. For companies planning to build large scale facilities to meet this demand, a shortage of skilled workers potentially complicates a wave of new capital investment projects.
This challenge is shared by many of our customers and some of their customers farther down the manufacturing value chain. According to the NAM study, 80 percent of U.S. manufacturers have a significant shortage of qualified job applicants for skilled and highly-skilled positions.
Our lawmakers should pursue bipartisan policies that will help train workers so they can benefit from this manufacturing boom. One example is the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, introduced by Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., which overwhelmingly passed the House last year.
The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act would promote work-based learning programs across the country, allowing federal money to flow more easily from Washington to local education providers and giving those local officials more flexibility to shape class curricula to meet job requirements in their specific communities.
Today’s businesses need skilled workers. And our country’s next generation needs technical training that will allow them to capitalize on the opportunity before us.
Commonsense, forward-thinking legislation such as the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act will allow U.S. chemical manufacturers to maintain their current competitive edge and continue to create well-paying jobs for years to come.
