CEO: Qualified workforce could fill local boom in job opportunities

Southwestern Pennsylvania is no longer the economically depressed region with little job opportunity for those entering the workforce that it was 30 years ago.
That was the message from the leader of a regional nonprofit economic development organization during his visit to Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.
Allegheny Conference on Community Development CEO Dennis Yablonksy spoke to students and faculty Wednesday as part of the school’s “CEO Conversations” series, urging students to attain the skills needed to fill the thousands of job openings in the region.
“There are more people that work in the 10 counties of southwestern Pennsylvania than ever before,” said Yablonsky, noting that the current unemployment rate for the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area is 5.2 percent, lower than the state (5.7 percent) and national (5.9 percent) rates.
“Our population is growing again for the first time in over 20 years, and generally we’re getting younger and better educated. We’re having a brain gain not a brain drain,” Yablonsky said. He added that the Pittsburgh area has been recognized in numerous publications over the past several years as a top destination for college graduates, as a “most livable place” and as one of the happiest places in the country to live.
The Allegheny Conference markets the region for business attraction and retention projects, performs public policy research and lobbies on behalf of the public sector for a better environment for growth and job creation, Yablonsky said.
A native of McKeesport, Yablonsky served as secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development from 2003 to 2008, during which time he developed a $3 billion economic stimulus program to support critical infrastructure, core communities and job-producing businesses. He worked with Governor Ed Rendell to create a $650 million energy fund aimed at reducing dependence on foreign oil and growing the state’s energy economy.
Yablonsky previously held positions as chief operating officer of software company Cincom Systems and CEO of the Carnegie Group, the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse.
During his talk, Yablonsky referred students to Allegheny Conference offshoot ImaginePittsburgh.com, a website that scours the web for job listings in the region. As of Wednesday, the website showed more than 25,700 job openings in southwestern Pennsylvania.
“Two-thirds of the open jobs do not require a college degree, but do require some sort of training post high school,” Yablonsky said.
“The kinds of jobs we’re creating are generally higher pay than average,” he said, indicating that many of them are technology-based positions.
Of the many things that still plague economic growth in the region, Yablonsky said, chief among them is an under-qualified workforce.
“The number one issue our companies bring up is they can’t find enough people with the right skills,” he said.
Yablonsky lamented structural issues in the state’s secondary and post-secondary training systems that he believes do not prepare students for work placement.
“We need to do a better job, particularly at seventh and 11th grade, on career orientation. That before (students) start choosing their post-secondary educational path and potentially the career that they’re going to go down, we need to get them better oriented to where the opportunities really are and to make sure technical training institutions are actually training people to give them the skills to get jobs,” he said.
Yablonsky advised students to take advantage of leadership opportunities, to practice their communication skills and to not be afraid to take risks. He also stressed the importance of approaching work with a willing, hard-working attitude.
“I think there’s a positive correlation between attitude and success. No matter what you do, you’re going to have systems that challenge you. You need to embrace them as an opportunity to show how creative you are and how much stamina you have,” he said.
CEO Conversations, an ongoing series of discussions with business leaders sponsored by Joseph A. Hardy III, gives audiences an opportunity to hear from and talk with key individuals in the local, regional and national business communities about business, entrepreneurship and leadership.