Chamber Promotes Building 21st Century Workforce

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Chamber of Commerce today hosted a workforce summit to discuss the challenges and benefits of strengthening the nation's publicly funded workforce development system. As part of the summit, the Chamber released the results of a Center for Workforce Preparation study on the business community's view of the public workforce development system.

"Though it's getting better, we still find businesses are not aware of the opportunity to use one-stop career centers to find potential employees," said Beth B. Buehlmann, Ph.D., executive director of the Chamber's Center for Workforce Preparation. "More has to be done to improve employers', especially from small- and medium-sized businesses, awareness of these centers and their resources. And a commitment has to be made to ensure the public workforce system helps employers find qualified, highly skilled workers."

While dissatisfaction with the workforce system is low, less than 20 percent of businesses report using a one-stop career center in the past 12 months, according to the CWP survey, "Rising to the Challenge: Business Voices on the Public Workforce Development System." The study also revealed nearly 60 percent of businesses are not aware of the career centers in their area. And despite the rise in unemployment, half of employers surveyed reported having a hard time finding qualified job applicants.

"Businesses face a tremendous challenge finding qualified workers to fill skilled positions," Buehlmann said. "America's public workforce development system can remedy this problem by creating a system that is both useful for businesses and that businesses know how to use. The continued strength of our knowledge-based economy depends on it."

The Center for Workforce Preparation, a nonprofit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, helps state and local chambers develop workforce strategies so employees of their members are fully equipped to compete in the 21st century economy.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

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