ALBANY, N.Y.— Many jobs in New York go unfilled because employers are unable to find highly skilled workers. IBM Vice President of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs and President, IBM Foundation Stanley S. Litow and SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher will discuss the importance of public-private partnerships and high education standards to ensure that students will be able to compete in college and the work world upon graduation from high school, during one of several panel discussions at The Business Council of New York State's Annual Meeting.
The discussion, “The Role of Business in Education,” will take place on September 18 at 10 a.m. at The Sagamore Resort in Bolton Landing, NY.
Businesses in New York state are projected to create one million jobs that require more education than a high school diploma but not a four-year college degree between 2008 and 2018, according to data compiled by Jobs for the Future and The Business Council.
Referred by the Brookings Institute as “the hidden STEM economy,” middle-skill jobs will make up 39 percent — the largest portion— of all jobs in New York state by 2018. Jobs requiring a four-year college degree will comprise 34 percent of the workforce while low-skill jobs, those requiring a high school diploma or less, will make up the remaining 27 percent of the workforce.
The data also shows that this gap will continue to widen as the supply of recent graduates prepared for these jobs is projected to decline by 2025.
“The business community recognizes the urgency in closing the middle skills gap, and that jobs in the STEM field play a major role in driving the state's economy. This data shows that New York's growing STEM economy will be stifled if we do not find innovative new ways to help schools better prepare graduates to fill good paying middle-skill jobs,” said Heather C. Briccetti, Esq., president and CEO of The Business Council.