ILLINOIS (WAND) - Illinois leaders said now is the time to plan ahead for the future needs of our work force.
"As the saying goes, those who fail to plan, plan to fail," Clark Kaericher, the vice president of government affairs for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, said in a press conference Tuesday.
Health care, education and hospitality are expected to see the largest increases in new jobs over the next decade.
But the health care industry is still struggling to catch up after being stretched thin during the pandemic.
"We're breathing, we're starting to breathe now. It's not as much crisis as it was," Rhonda Luther, president of the Illinois Healthcare Association, told WAND News.
She believes facilities from nursing homes to hospitals will begin to catch up as the pandemic slows and new students graduate.
"Once staff figure out where they're going to be, I think organizations can look towards the future and try to get a little pulse on it all," Luther added.
But she said the health care industry is especially focused on the next 20 years, when the peak of baby boomers are expected to enter nursing homes and need more care from medical facilities.
"Which gives us, I believe, a fantastic opportunity to get it together and revamp," Luther explained.
This is what Illinois lawmakers are now considering after receiving the Illinois Future of Work Task Force Report.
"We continue to see a trend of the dwindling of middle-wage jobs, while lower and higher wage jobs are projected to grow. This is because we're seeing the decline of industries such as manufacturing, production and administrative services," State Sen. Ram Villivalam, who represents the 8th District, said in a press conference Tuesday.
The report looked across the at how Illinois can begin preparing now for the future.
"I very much believe good jobs are good business and also that a good business climate creates good jobs," Kaericher added.
Luther said she would like to see an effort to attract more nurses from outside the state and modernize the programs in place.
"The state of Illinois hasn't revamped CNA training for 10 to 20 years. So let's bring it to modern time, let's do things via webinars, let's condense it a little bit," Luther explained.
The report suggested broad ideas for improving the future workforce, like expanding access to career and technical education, adding funding for low-income students to attend college, and providing tax credits for businesses to help offset the cost of training.
You can read the entire report here:
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