A Scary Workforce Stat

For ten years, I've been hearing this stat:  "Net growth in Ohioans 65 and older will increase from 14 per day, currently, to 119 per day in 2012."

The stat comes from the State of Ohio's economist guru's at the the Ohio Department of Development.  See the full report.

When I first heard this stat in 2000, I got nervous.

When I heard it again and again through 2008, I got real nervous. 

I joined the bandwagon of those warning folks of the upcoming workforce shortage that something like this could be a prelude to.  Licking County created Workenomics, in part, to prepare to answer this coming workforce crunch.

I stopped citing this stat in 2008, but now in 2010 and despite the continuing and potentially double-dipping recession, I think its high time we start getting nervous again about the potential workforce crunch.

Let's get ready to welcome homesick Ohioans back home and let's prepare to train the next generation of highly-skilled technicians for Ohio manufacturing.  No Ohio jobs should go unfilled.

See that again:  "Net growth in Ohioans 65 and older will increase from 14 per day, currently, to 119 per day in 2012."

Yikes.