In January I did a posting on the latest jobs projections by
EDD, indicating that the great majority of jobs in California’s future will not
be the heralded "knowledge jobs". As is the case today in California’s job
structure, the majority of job openings in the next decade are projected to be
the personal and home care aides, retail salespersons, cashiers, food
preparation and serving workers, registered nurses, customer service repress,
office clerks and laborers, With the exception of registered nurses, all of
these occupational categories have 2010 median wages below $30,000.
The posting brought several inquiries concerning the
relationship of California’s workforce system to this projected job structure.
What if any policies might improve the wages and mobility of workers in these
jobs? What is the role of the local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) in trying
to influence the structure of jobs in California as well as the skills of
workers?
Over the past twenty years in California, the public
workforce system has experimented with a number of efforts to improve wages and
mobility of California’s low wage workforces. In the early 2000s, several
"career ladder" efforts were undertaken to improve the wages and mobility of
farm workers in the Central Valley, entry level hotel workers in Los Angeles
and the Bay Area, and direct service workers in long term care facilities
throughout the state.
These "career ladder" efforts were largely short-lived and
with limited impact. In the farm worker program a good number of the workers
sought mainly to learn English to move out of farm work, and into construction.
Those who stayed in farm work found little ability among growers to pay extra
for additional skills training. The hotel workers, the housekeepers,
dishwashers and banquet stewards enrolled, found limited advancement
opportunities-especially when the tourism market collapsed after 9-11. Only the
certified nurse assistants in long term care facilities were able to see wage
gains, due mainly to revisions in the state reimbursement system.
(Tom Heinz and Sojeila Silva of East Bay Innovations career
ladders)
Still, "career ladders" in California has not ended. One of
the workforce professionals I heard from after that January posting was Ms.
Sojeila Silva, who participated in a number of the previous career ladder
efforts, and is now working on an important career ladders program with East
Bay Innovations.
East Bay Innovations (EBI) is an agency based in San Leandro
that assists people with developmental disabilities to find employment and to
live independently. EBI is one of the larger nonprofits in California funded by
the state Department of Developmental Services and Department of
Rehabilitation.
In its own workforce, East Bay Innovations employs a range of
direct service workers, including (i) personal assistant, (ii) independent
living instructor, (iii) job coach, and (iv) front line supervisor. As Tom
Heinz, EBI Executive Director, explains, each of these positions requires a
variety of job skills and problem solving. The personal assistant, for example,
often must master assistive technology as well as help solve mobility and
independent living challenges.
Before the Great Recession, turnover among personal
assistants was a big problem, since pay was low ($10-$12 per hour) compared to
skills required. Since the Great Recession, turnover has gone down from its
high of 40%, but is still a concern, as is the ability of EBI to offer
advancement opportunities for its instructors and job coaches.
EBI currently is engaged with the Alameda County WIB in a
career ladder program, with an initial focus on personal assistants. It is also
engaged with other direct services providers across the nation in a
certification process to identify the skills utilized by direct service workers
and demonstrate competencies.
Though EBI’s efforts are in an initial stage, these efforts
are worth tracking. As I noted in the
earlier post, despite the phony rhetoric of Professor Robert Reich and others,
not all workers will be the "knowledge workers", and professionalizing our low
wage workforces is one of the next major WIB challenges.