(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE—In this file photo from May 5, 2021, a vehicle speeds by a hiring sign offering a $500 bonus outside a McDonalds restaurant, in Cranberry Township, Butler County, Pa. Pennsylvania will resume work search requirements in July for hundreds of thousands of people receiving unemployment compensation, a top Wolf administration official said Monday, May 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)
(Reported by Danielle Smith of Keystone News Service)
(Harrisburg, PA) A new report reveals Pennsylvania and the rest of the United States are expected to face a major worker shortage as millions of baby boomers retire. It estimates that by 2032, the U.S. will need an additional 5-point-25 million workers with education or training beyond a high school diploma. Nicole Smith with the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce is co-author of the report. She says some of the most concerning shortages can be found in essential industries. The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education reports that by 2026, more than half of the state’s 6-point-3 million jobs will require some level of post-secondary education, classified as “skilled occupations.