Work force development: A look to the future; baby boomers were too busy to have a lot of children, so now a shortage of workers is predicted for the near future.

• Author: McCorkle, Vern C.

Work force development. These three words are frequently buzzed around in the business world, but are three words about which few people have even a clue as to what they may mean. Contrary to conventional wisdom vis-a-vis government programs, these three words mean exactly what they say-developing a work force. And that is important to business.

The concept originated more than a decade ago. Long before government types grasped the looming problem, employers began to worry about how they were going to replace retiring workers who were soon to exit the work force.

Another new revelation has been the fact that workers, per se, have been and are now seen to be one of the three vital components of the long-held axiom that economy is comprised of money, manpower and materials (natural resources).

Skilled manpower is a primary point of concern, training managers and business managers contend. When anything of significance, such as a work force, is in short supply, that shortage becomes critical. Work force managers say the shortage is just around the corner, and that it will be critical.

How many times has it been said that some kind of doom is "just around the corner or that the sky is falling, again."? However in the case of Alaska's (and the U.S.'s) work force, the numbers are quite clear. But effective resolution of worker shortage is less clear, and demands new thinking and new responses. Also, it requires a new preparation and a new way of doing things, work force developers contend.

WHY SO SUDDEN?

Why is it that this crisis has come upon employers and job seekers all at once, many people are asking. Just more fright tactics, they wonder. No, for those who could read the numbers, the present situation has come as no surprise.

Just over a generation ago, the demographic group that has come to be known as the baby boomers entered the work force. In only a few years hence most will be leaving their jobs for retirement. They would normally have been replaced by generational offspring, the X generation, as they are affectionately known. Only the X generation never showed up, statistics reveal. How come? The "boomers" are characterized by a few very unique factors: nearly all women worked so there were more two-income families and many of them either had no children, had fewer children or began families in later life.

As this was happening, the Alaska and U.S. economies were undergoing radical change: they transitioned to the "information...