Population trends in Berrien County could affect the county's job market
BENTON HARBOR, Mich – Population trends in Berrien County could spell trouble for the future job market.
According to Kinexus which is a local community development organization an aging, shrinking and less educated population are the reasons over 10,000 job openings could be difficult to fill by 2030.
“We’re getting older, we’re getting smaller, and we need a higher education attainment rate in order to stay in pace with the 21stcentury job demands,” Kinexus CEO Todd Gustafson said.
Gustafson says there are multiple ways to attack the problem.
“There are a number of ways we can address this as a community it can’t be Kinexus group alone we have to work with other partners including our K-12 education, the community colleges and business and industry and bringing them together to address these issues and work in alignment will make all the difference,” Gustafson said.
Michigan’s population increased in recent years while Southwest Michigan’s decreased accorded to U.S. Census bureau numbers.
According to Al Pscholka of Kinexus businesses and local elected officials need to lead the effort to solve the problem.
“I think this has to be driven by businesses I think the business community has to be a little more vocal in explaining to educators and to elected officials hey here’s what we’re finding in the workplace here’s kind of what we need in the future and that way you can build a partnership that actually lasts and gets some results,” Kinexus VP of Public Relations and Government Affairs Al Pscholka said.