Illinois: Will County Report Warns Aging Workforce Could Impact Economy

The Workforce Investment Board of Will County, Illinois, has released a report saying that it is time to pay attention and take action on the county's aging and shrinking workforce as the issue could impact the county's economy. The report identifies specific sectors of business and industry in the county where the aging population (50 and older) is more prevalent: education (18.1%), manufacturing (15.2%), healthcare (12.7%), transportation/warehousing/logistics (12.8%), and finance-insurance (12.4%).

Pat Fera, manager of the Workforce Investment Board, notes that the report also includes a number of suggestions to help business and industry prepare for the retirement of Baby Boomers and the labor shortage:

Businesses will be competing more than ever for skilled workers--and the smartest businesses are taking steps to understand what their future workforce will want and likely demand. But there is no ‘one size fits all' strategy that insures companies they can continue to have the workforce necessary to remain competitive in our global economy. They need to assess their current workforce and seek out creative strategies to maintain the knowledge base of their aging workforce while attracting new workers to their industry.

Source: Workforce Investment Board of Will County "Impact of a Maturing Workforce in Will County" (December 2007)

Additional Source: Morris Daily Herald "Boomer retirement will impact Will Co. labor force" (February 14, 2008)

Illinois Governor's Budget Proposal To Respond to Aging Nursing Workforce

In his operating budget plan for Fiscal Year 2007, Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich included a series of proposals to to address the shortage of nurses-–expected to grow to 21,000 by 2020 in Illinois--spurred by an aging workforce and increased demand for nurses as baby boomers grow older. Among other things, Governor Blagojevich proposes to:

• Develop the Center for Nursing to develope a strategic plan for nursing manpower in Illinois, maintaining a database on nursing supply and demand, and creating nursing retention and recruitment initiatives;
• offer nursing educator scholarships;<;i>offer grants to nursing schools to help increase the number of faculty;
• make changes to existing nursing scholarship program to allow consideration of merit;
• create student loan repayment program for nurse educators.

The budget message follows up on an earlier announcement by the Governor of his plan of heading off the an anticipated severe shortage of nurses resulting from an aging nursing workforce.

Source: Press Relase Illinois Government (February 15, 2006)