La PORTE — Improving the workforce will be critical to growing Indiana’s economy and ensuring the prosperity of residents, but it will require more attention to some of the state’s most challenging issues, a leading business advocate says.

Finding quality employees with the right skills could become even more difficult in the years ahead if trends continue, Indiana Chamber of Commerce President Kevin Brinegar said Tuesday night during a presentation at Arconic Power and Propulsion.

“It is incumbent upon elected officials, policy makers and those who impact public policy to do everything we can to help you fulfill your needs by scaling up our existing workforce and by making sure students coming up through the K-12 system are as prepared for life after high school as they can possibly be.”

More emphasis on post-secondary education and training is also needed, he said.

Brinegar talked about his organization’s study of workforce development during a meeting of the La Porte Manufacturers Association, an event sponsored by the Greater La Porte Chamber of Commerce.

The dinner was hosted by Arconic, which later offered tours of the high-tech manufacturing plant on Boyd Boulevard. In attendance were local manufacturers, educators, elected officials and workforce leaders.

Not all the news was bad. Indiana’s business climate ranking has climbed from 28th in the nation 15 years ago to fifth best among the states, he said. Indiana is No. 1 among Midwest states and the only state in the Midwest among the Top 10.

The chamber’s own economic report card, which measures progress using a variety of metrics every two years, shows the state’s prospects are improving and “overall very positive” compared not only with previous years but among other states.

Although the chamber’s report examines a wide range of areas using a number of measures, Brinegar focused on only three in his dicussion of labor talent: elementary and secondary education, higher education and workforce training.

“I know there is a lot of angst because there have been a lot of changes in K-12 public policy, but these results suggest (the changes) are making a difference,” Brinegar said. “Our kids are doing better in absolute terms and relative to their peers in other states."

Strong high school graduation rates, the share of students who need remedial education in their freshman year and other markers seem to be steady or improving. One black mark is that 10 percent of working-age Hoosiers have never graduated from high school.

“That’s simply unacceptable in a 21st-century, knowledge-based economy,” Brinegar said. “So, not surprisingly, we’ve got some challenges there.”

The state is making some headway in post-secondary education, according to studies conducted by the chamber.

“The general message here is that we’re getting better, but we still have a long way to go because our starting point in terms of our ranking was pretty low,” he said.

The percentage of residents with post-secondary credentials is 41 percent, behind the U.S. average of 46 percent and far short of the state’s goal of 60 percent.

The share of people with associate degrees rose from 30.5 percent two years earlier to 36 percent, improving the state’s ranking from 45th to 40th. Those with bachelor’s degrees increased from 23.8 percent to 26.7 percent, with Indiana climbing from 42nd to 39th among the 50 states.

Although Indiana colleges and universities are producing an increasing number of graduates with STEM degrees — those in science, technology, engineering and math — Indiana still ranks only 42nd among the states in the percentage of residents 25 and older who actually hold such valuable degrees.

“What that tells us is that we need to do a better job of keeping the STEM college graduates we produce here in our state after they graduate,” he said.

Chamber studies show the highest demand for jobs in the coming years will be for those with “middle skills,” Brinegar said — those who hold more than a high-school education but less than a bachelor’s degree.

Half of all businesses surveyed by the organization said they have had to leave jobs open in the past year because they can’t find qualified workers compared with 39 percent in the same survey four years ago.

The issue may get worse, Brinegar said. The ongoing survey of 1,200 businesses showed 54 percent plan to expand in the next two years while only 30 percent said they will reduce their payroll.

Two-thirds said they need workers who hold less than a bachelor’s degree to fill vacant jobs. About 45 percent said they encountered applicants who had the required skills but were unwilling to work for the pay offered, one result of a low unemployment rate, according to Brinegar.

About 26 percent of respondents said they planned to add high-wage jobs in the next 24 months.

“I know how difficult and frustrating it can be not to have enough people to run all your machines and fill all your orders,” he said.

Addressing issues such as quality of life, obesity, smoking rates and substance abuse also will improve the state’s economy and the prospects of those who live and work here, Brinegar said.

Arconic later also weighed in on the issue, saying its world-class workforce is critical to the success of the La Porte facility, which manufactures highly engineered components for some of the aerospace industry's best-selling jet engines.

“Since opening our plant expansion in 2015, we have created more than 300 high-quality, advanced-manufacturing jobs," said Chris Kraynak, manufacturing director, structural operations. "Arconic invests not only in cutting-edge plants and equipment, but also in its communities and people to prepare them for rewarding advanced manufacturing careers.”

Some examples of the company's workforce development activities include:

• Arconic La Porte maintains active co-op/internship programs for Engineering and Operations with Purdue Northwest, Purdue West Lafayette and Kettering University

• Arconic Foundation, and its predecessor, Legacy Alcoa Foundation, have made grants totaling $398,000 to nonprofits in the La Porte community since 2014. The funding primarily supports STEM and workforce development initiatives with community partners including La Porte High School, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Michigan City Area Schools and AK Smith Career Center.
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