In what will play a major role in Washington's economic recovery, nearly 470,000 "middle-skill" job openings—those that require more than a high school diploma, but less than a four-year college degree—are projected for the state by 2017, a new report concludes.

The report was released last month by The Workforce Alliance (TWA) and the Skills2Compete-Washington campaign, an affiliate of the national Skills2Compete campaign. To unleash the full economic benefits of those projected openings, Washington will need to invest in proper training and education for its embattled work force, TWA says.

While the recession is stifling current employment growth, the report projects that middle-skill jobs—including new and replacement positions—will account for 42 percent of all openings between 2006 and 2017. It forecasts that low- and high-skill jobs will account for 25 percent and 33 percent of all openings, respectively.

The report, which for the first time tracks Washington's jobs at the middle-skill level, notes that federal funds from the recovery bill also are expected to create millions of new jobs, especially in industries dominated by middle-skill occupations, such as the environment and energy, construction, manufacturing, and transportation sectors.

Washington's strong record of investments in postsecondary education and work-force training hasn't kept up with demand for middle-skill workers, TWA says. Prior to the recession, the state already was experiencing shortages of middle-skill workers in crucial industries, it says. As of 2007, only 45 percent of Washington workers had qualifications at the middle-skill level.

With severe unemployment in the state, the report asserts that the recession is precisely the right time to develop a strong middle-skill work force.

"Economic downtime in Washington must be used to invest in training time," urges Agnes Balassa, of TWA, the convening organization for the national Skills2Compete campaign. "If Washington seeks real economic recovery and long-term prosperity, we must ensure our work force has the necessary education and training to meet the labor demands of the future. The recession provides a time frame for businesses and the state to be opportunistic: Evaluate labor and skill needs and train and prepare for the jobs that are expected to grow."

"We've experienced shortages in skilled workers for years," says Eric Hahn, president of General Plastics, of Tacoma, in a TWA news release. "And while the current recession certainly limits our ability to grow, we know that when the economy bounces back, we are going to need a strong, ready, and skilled work force to move our company ahead."

"Even when you're really motivated, it's hard to take time away from family and other responsibilities to go to college," says Karrie McKechnie, who currently works at St. Francis Sleep Lab, in Tacoma. "When I enrolled in community college to advance my career, I needed help to succeed. WorkSource (Washington's publicly funded work-force development system) was critical to helping me complete my education and balance my life. Without their programs, it's difficult for adults to get the training they need for skilled jobs."

The analysis for the study was performed by TWA using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Washington state Employment Security Department. The analysis is based on the methodology developed for a national Skills2Compete report, titled America's Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs, by labor economists Harry Holzer and Robert Lerman.

The report, which assesses the current and future middle-skill employment and education patterns in the state, found the following:

•Sales and office administrative jobs will burgeon. More than a quarter of all openings expected for Washington between 2007 and 2017 will occur in two categories—sales-related positions and office and administrative support.

•The decline in middle-skill preparation is projected to worsen. The number of Washington's middle-skill workers increased by 7 percent between 1989 and 2004, but that trend is in the throes of a reversal. The number of such workers in the state is projected to decline by 3.8 percent between 2004 and 2020.

•The state's shortage of adequately trained middle-skill workers is likely to be exacerbated by federal economic stimulus spending. Much of the job growth associated with the Federal Recovery Act is expected to occur in the middle-skill sector, but training for these positions remains underfunded in Washington.

•Immigration trends are likely to do little to offset middle-skill attrition, as most work-force growth in the state due to in-migration likely will occur at the low end or high end of the skill spectrum, with engineers brought in from overseas being one example of the latter.

The report also finds that two-thirds of the people who will be in Washington's work force in the year 2020 already were working adults in 2005—long past the traditional high school-to-college pipeline. The Skills2Compete campaign says this finding underscores the crucial importance of investing in training and retraining the current adult work force to close the skill gap. While the nation's K-12 education system also needs significant repair, that alone won't solve this problem, TWA says.

Echoing a vision put forward by the national Skills2Compete campaign, President Obama first challenged every American in February to commit to at least one year of postsecondary education or training and has continued to signal that investing in a range of skills for America's work force—"be it at a community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship"—will be a priority for his administration.

"There is a federal call to action that must not be ignored. The president has called on all Americans to obtain some form of postsecondary education or job training and has backed that up with commitments to invest in community colleges and other middle-skill training opportunities," says Lisa Nisenfeld, a lead partner in the Skills2Compete-Washington campaign.

"Continuing education beyond high school is vital to so many careers," says Beth Thew, executive secretary-treasurer for the Spokane Regional Labor Council AFL-CIO. "A lot of people don't realize that there are a lot of pathways to get the skills needed for high-demand, high-wage jobs, besides spending time in a classroom getting a four-year degree. A lot of what the report calls 'middle-skill' jobs really require high levels of skills that can be obtained through apprenticeships, the military, and community colleges."

Brian Read, a senior vice president at Sterling Savings Bank, says in the TWA news release, "Based on the findings of this report, it only makes sense we, as a state, would allocate our finite resources to where the demand is now and will be in the future—the middle-skill jobs."

Skills2Compete is a nonpartisan campaign to ensure the U.S. work force has the skills needed to meet business demand, to foster innovation, and to grow broadly shared prosperity. The campaign's supporters include national and local leaders from business, labor, education and training, community, and civil rights groups, and the public sector.

TWA advocates for public policies that invest in the skills of America's workers, so they can support their families better and help American businesses compete better in today's economy. TWA is a national coalition of community-based training organizations, community colleges, unions, business leaders, local officials, and technical-assistance and research organizations.