Will the workforce be with us

TEQ: September 2001
Will the (Work)Force Be with Us?
A Sweeping Regional Initiative is Underway to See that It Is

By: Evan Pattak

You don’t have to persuade Carlos Borzutzky that our region has a workforce development problem. In April 2000, Borzutzky, an experienced radiologist with impressive credentials, founded Accurate Mobile X-Ray, LLC, a business based in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood. Accurate Mobile X-Ray provides portable x-ray services to long-term care facilities.

As the number of such facilities has soared — nursing homes, personal care and assisted living residences — the mobile x-ray business has also grown. Today it’s a competitive field, with at least five providers in the region.

Borzutzky thinks Accurate Mobile can grow along with the industry — if he can identify and hire more technologists. He’s scoured x-ray technology schools for recent grads and advertised in metropolitan newspapers without success. He called two former x-ray technologists. One had joined an MRN unit and the other has moved into mobile lithotripsy — both more appealing positions because they require no weekend or evening hours.

Borzutzky isn’t giving up hope. His next plan is to run “help wanted” ads in smaller newspapers.

“There’s definitely a shortage of technologists right now,” Borzutzky says. “For that matter, there’s a shortage of radiologists.” Multiply Borzutzky’s experience by many thousand and you get a picture of a region whose competitiveness may be threatened by a shortage of skilled workers able to meet the demands of
employers. The peril is more than theoretical.

“To a frightening extent, if you look at the nation’s demographics, the presence of a skilled workforce will be the primary determinant of a region’s success,” says Cliff Shannon, President of SMC Business Councils. “Success will be dependent on your human capital. If we want to be competitive, we have to get after this.”

The region’s political, business and economic development leaders have begun to go after it with a far-reaching initiative designed to create a shared vision about workforce development . . . and to fashion concrete programs as well. Called Southwestern Pennsylvania Workforce Summits, the initiative was conceived by Allegheny County Executive Jim Roddey and embellished by the New Idea Factory.

At its center are five industry cluster groups that will kickoff the initiative with summits, assemble and evaluate the input, and design programs that address both sector- specific and common needs. The information technology, healthcare and manufacturing summits already have taken place, with financial services and hospitality and tourism summits set for November and January, respectively.

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