Chair Message

BY NICK LAMBROW

The summer tourism season is upon us, and in Delaware, that’s notable for this reason: Summer tourists mean summer jobs.

Restaurants and hotels along the coastline will be brimming with patrons. Tourist attractions and entertainment venues will be booked day and night. Retail and grocery stores will see an uptick in shoppers.

Employers will need employees, and Delaware’s economy stands to benefit. All that sounds great—especially when you consider the uncertainty we’ve faced for more than two years. But what happens when the tourists go home? What happens when the summer season draws to its inevitable close?

While the needs of the hospitality sector are many, so too are the needs of other sectors important to the Delaware economy. We must continue to invest in the programs and practices that will train Delawareans and match them with the jobs available today and tomorrow in our state.

Delaware’s unemployment rate is in much better shape than it was two years ago, but it’s still not back to prepandemic levels. In February 2020, Delaware’s unemployment was 3.7 percent; it’s hovered just under 5 percent for the past several months.

The numbers don’t tell the entire story, though. Employers are saying their job vacancy rates are at all-time highs. They say they can’t find workers with the skills—notably skills in the trades and IT—needed to do the job.

This labor mismatch is not exclusive to Delaware. But if our state is going to remain competitive and attractive to businesses, we need to deal with these challenges in two ways:

• Lengthen and widen our pipeline for talented workers; and,

• Retrain our existing workforce to do the jobs waiting to be filled.

Broadening the state’s talent pipeline got a boost late last year when Gov. John Carney announced an additional $15.8 million public-private investment in the state’s Pathways program that allows students to get work experience in health care, IT, finance, and engineering while in school. The expanded Pathways program will reach more than 6,000 Delaware middle school students and 32,000 high schoolers—up from the 23,000 high school students it currently serves.

We must continue to invest in the programs and practices that will train Delawareans and match them with the jobs available today and tomorrow in our state.

As members of the State Chamber, we also can do our part to support The Partnership Inc.—the State Chamber’s 501(c)(3) workforce development affiliate—and its flagship program, Intern Delaware. The program is designed to provide student interns with professional development and networking opportunities that highlight what the state can offer them professionally and personally, so that we keep our young talent in Delaware. We, at M&T Bank, see great value in programs like Intern Delaware and are proud to offer this internship “add-on” to our summer interns.

Young people entering the workforce only account for three percent of the entire labor market. Therefore, retraining—or upskilling—our current workforce through apprenticeships or rapid training courses could help close the gap between the jobs available in Delaware and the number of skilled, trained people to fill them. As we look to help industries like manufacturing and biotech boost employment in the state, we can look to successful programs like Year Up and Zip Code Wilmington as a blueprint for how to retrain Delawareans who want or need to make a career change. In just 12 weeks, Zip Code students learn how to be software developers through mentorship and networking opportunities with technologists from corporate partners that then look to offer the students full-time jobs.

Let’s draw upon the collaborative culture of Delaware’s business community to look at what’s working and dream up the next Zip Code-like jobs training program. Let’s build upon those successful programs and replicate their models across all industries. The time is now for us to work together to provide skills, knowledge, and opportunities to our workforce—of today and tomorrow.