The quote comes from The Seattle Times’ special economics correspondent, Jon Talton, on this Sunday’s business page. In a follow-up to a previous column, where Talton tried to reassure readers that the machinist union’s rejection of Boeing’s 777X contract didn’t spell Detroit-like doom for Seattle, the columnist made clear that the Emerald City does face serious challenges to our collective economic future.

Citing a McKinsey Global Institute research report, Talton outlines a dozen “disruptive technologies” (examples: automation of knowledge work and advanced robotics) that could truly decimate Seattle’s high-tech job markets in a not-too-distant dystopian future. One might term this the “unemployment isn’t just for the low-skilled anymore” phenomenon.

Talton is hardly an agent of despair, however. He provides the community with the two solutions needed to avoid, or at least mitigate, a jobs meltdown.  The first, which Talton has commented on before, is that Seattle needs to recapture its innovative edge.  He notes, with a hint of pride, that Seattle has been one of the leading centers of these fearsome disruptive technologies.  But he adds it has been an uncomfortably long stretch since Seattle has produced an Amazon or a Microsoft.  And time waits for no one. His solution is for our region’s leaders to become “early adopters” of technology.

The other antidote, and the one most relevant to ASTDps members, is for government policy makers to considerably increase investment in retraining workers for the jobs of tomorrow. Let me offer, in my role as the Chapter’s manager of public policy, two comments on Talton’s second recommendation.

First, note that Talton isn’t recommending training. He is saying the need is for RE-training. This is important, because during this year I attended and wrote to you about meetings and conferences where the sole focus was on training the upcoming generation.

To reiterate what I said before about these meetings, I am of course very much in favor of making sure our young people get the training they need to successfully join the workforce in a good job. But there seems to be an almost willful blindness on the part of many of our region’s elite opinion-makers to high, persistent, long-term unemployment and its corrosive effects on society as well as on many unfortunate individuals.

Despite all of the talk about life-long learning, there are no effective policies in place – nor, from what I can tell, even on the horizon -- to support the increasing need for retraining of workers of any age whose job has disappeared due to disruptive technologies. It’s time to get serious about this need.

Second, this need is both a challenge and opportunity for ASTDps and its members. It is in our self-interest to advocate for policies, and the right sort of policies, that will move policy makers toward actions to support more and better RE-training that will benefit our entire region’s workforce.  This includes thinking beyond the state’s university- and community college-systems, as important as they are, to come up with comprehensive systems that link employer needs to a multitude of training options. 

Please contact me if you would like to find out more about these issues and work on them.

William “Bud” Wurtz, PhD

ASTDps Manager, Public Policy

governmentaffairs@astdps.org