(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2023)
Chris White, from the New York State Department of Labor, speaks at SUNY Adirondack during the Warren County Economic Development Corporation symposium on the future of the local economy.
Warren County is growing older, and the workforce that remains is changing, at time when technology is advancing and the housing shortage is still pricing people out of the market, officials said during the presentation “Economic Outlook: What we need. Why we need it!” held Wednesday Feb. 15, hosted by the Warren Economic Development Corporation.
Although some of the news sounded bleak, the overall focus of the two-hour event at SUNY Adirondack focused as much on what might be done as on what the troubles are.
Warren County’s Director of the Department of Workforce Development Liza Ochsendorf reminded the audience, “If you can predict it, you can plan for it.”
That is a turn of phrase that Ochsendorf often repeats, she said.
She said she was at a recent meeting of the Saratoga Warren Washington counties workforce board where virtual reality was demonstrated.
“We got to witness someone using virtual reality to change oil in a car,” she said, adding that this technology has applications in all industries. “This will be here before you know it.”
Chris White with the Department of Labor ran through the many ways that the economy is changing. He posted this quote on the screen:
“As we all know, economic development plays a crucial role in the growth and prosperity of any region. It can bring new jobs, attract investment, and improve the standard of living for residents. In Warren County, economic development is more important than ever, as it has the power to drive sustainable growth and build a brighter future for all who call this county home.”
He asked the audience if they knew who originally said it and when, and then admitted it came from ChatGPT, the online computer robot that can write conversational English. Just a few months ago, the possibility that artificial intelligence could create understandable, accurate prose seemed far-fetched to most people he said.
“This is the coolest time to be alive,” given the innovation and technological changes the world is seeing, he said.
He talked about co-bots, which are robots that work with people on the factory floor; quantum computers that can calculate complex problems in minutes rather than years; 3D printers that now can use materials such as concrete to build the walls of houses on site; and the cannabis industry.
He wondered aloud if anyone would have imagined just a couple years ago how quickly this industry has grown.
“It is a huge industry with tens of thousands of jobs coming,” he said. And he did not only mean growing and picking the marijuana alone, but jobs in transportation, in shipping and in the agricultural science behind it.
He admitted that there are ramifications such as industries that get upended by the changes in technology and the jobs that simply disappear because they can be completed by a computer or robot.
He and Ochsendorf both spoke of preparation.
Warren County is at about full employment and has about 1,000 unfilled positions, about 50% in healthcare.
“In July, we usually add a thousand more jobs because of the hospitality industry,” Ochsendorf said.
Companies can do more to draw in workers, White said, by offering more training and childcare, which itself is at a premium in the county.
And businesses would be smart to listen to what their potential employees want–not just more money, which they do, but flexible time, paid time off, and validation from management for the work they do.
Ochsendorf said to give employees the opportunities for growth and to appreciate them for the work they do. She said that some employers in the county forget this and create an environment that creates turnover and unfilled positions.
“Sometimes a thank you goes a long way,” she said.
WarrenEDC’s President Jim Siplon said, “We must say yes to more people, and we must get younger.”
He warned that the county faces a tipping point in just seven years when we begin to see too many people too elderly to work and requiring healthcare, and at the same time not enough people working the economy to keep it sustained. He said the area needs to recruit and keep youth.
“We need to direct them into areas of demand,” he said, indicating a list of areas that White had outlined including laborers, registered nurses, commercial drivers, direct support professionals, carpenters, project managers, social workers and more.
Siplon said that Warren County has to realize, too, that its economy is based on primarily on education, healthcare and tourism. He believes that the county has no real chance of drawing a GlobalFoundries-sized plant or an Amazon distribution warehouse. That size factory just does not fit in Warren County and he said that hoping for it is a losing battle.
"We've got to figure out where we are and where we go," he said.
He spoke about the broadband expansion that the EDC along with many community partners has engaged in and pointed out that in 2018, 3,500 addresses in the county had no high speed internet. That number last year shrunk to about 500. At the same time, about 625 new businesses formed in the county last year. He said he sees this as a connection between a fulfilled infrastructure need and the response from the entrepreneur.
Of jobs created he said: "We never had more than 200 per year in our history. In one year we tripled the greatest number we ever had."
About 100 people, including many students, attended.