2nd Quarter 2019 Business Solutions
I am announcing funding for two important initiatives to greatly benefit those in our communities throughout Palm Beach County.
CareerSource Palm Beach County is awarding an additional $100,000 in funding to The Lord’s Place to increase the scope of services they provide to homeless ex-offenders and other men and women experiencing homelessness. This new funding is in addition to $200,000 already awarded by CareerSource this program year to fund these services and we have provided a total of $2 million in funding to The Lord’s Place over the past 10 years to help end the cycle of homelessness and unemployment.
The funding will enable The Lord’s Place to dedicate greater time and resources to providing individualized attention to participants who are 18 years or older, and are either (1) currently incarcerated or were incarcerated during their lifetime and are homeless or (2) homeless. Services will also include one-on-one/small group job coaching and life skills instruction. With these additional funds, The Lord’s Place will add 20 additional participants to their program, enroll 14 more participants into their employability skills training, and help 25 participants obtain unsubsidized employment.
But that’s not all – Governor Ron DeSantis recently announced the distribution of $1.75 million to help Floridians acquire skills needed for in-demand occupations through new and expanded apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs in industry sectors that are vital to the state’s economy. CareerSource Palm Beach County is receiving $300,000 of this funding to help implement this initiative. We are collaborating with the Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, the Marine Industry Association of Treasure Coast, and CareerSource Brevard to provide pre-apprenticeship programs in the marine and aerospace sectors. The marine industry alone employs more than 20,000 people and is growing at a rate where there are more positions than there are skilled workers to fill them. We also are prioritizing new and expanded apprenticeships in the high-demand fields of healthcare, construction, and hospitality.
We are honored to provide this increased level of support to our communities and the services it will help us provide are life-changing to those we serve.
The most recent unemployment rate for Palm Beach County is 3.2 percent, that was lower than both the state at 3.3 percent, and nation’s rate at 3.9 percent (all numbers not seasonally adjusted). This is an increase of nearly 16,000 jobs as measured in March 2019 compared to March 2018.
Embrace Disruptive Technologies, They Are Our Future
We are at a turning point in human history, where we are seeing a confluence of many innovative and disruptive technologies that in conjunction, will bring about a tsunami of change. In 2019, 3rd Platform technologies and services drive nearly 75% of IT spending – growing at 2X the rate of the total market. Those 3rd platform technologies and services—cloud, big data/analytics, social, and mobile platforms are no longer “emerging” but have become the default choice. By 2020, 67% of enterprise IT infrastructure and software will be for cloud-based offerings.
Disruptive technologies such as AI, Robotics, Machine Learning and Blockchain have the combined potential of transforming economic structures, business models, companies and jobs. Organizations need to consider preparing for these disruptive technologies and massive changes in ways that are different from previous approaches to handling emerging technologies. We are approaching the post-digital transformation era and inching towards the rise of the 4th platform (new set of technologies that will become mainstream in ten years), where it might not be sufficient to create technology innovation centers within the organization, invest in a proof of concept or pilot projects to experiment with new technologies.
Take self-driving electrical vehicles (EVs) as an example of a disruptive technology that will impact the future of the workforce and will disrupt many dominant industries. Up until a few years ago, driving a vehicle was considered an impossible task to automate. We are in an era where AI technologies with deep neural networks along with advanced sensors can detect and classify objects such as cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, signs, pedestrians and lane markings. As a result, a computer driving a car is becoming a reality. The price of lithium-ion batteries is poised to fall dramatically by 2020 due to increased production capacity. These conditions are ripe for the widespread adoption of self-driving electric vehicles.
A computer Operating System (OS) will be required to act as the central nervous system of the self-driving EVs that will orchestrate the effort end-to-end. This car-OS will be the next critical and mass operating system; it will take the lead from the mobile OS, which took the lead from the PC OS, which took the lead from the minicomputer and mainframe OSs. That is why we see Google and Apple fiercely competing in this space along with many other companies. Cars will now become extremely smart computers running on wheels.
We are seeing technology trends that are creating a new economic shift in consumers’ behavior from needing to acquire a product (a car in this case), to requesting a service to satisfy the same economic need (Uber or Lyft). This is because, in the long run, it will be much cheaper and more convenient to go with a service rather than owning a car. This new economic model, called “Transportation As A Service” (TAAS), will disrupt existing models, industries and companies. It will also usher in an era where we can subscribe to a monthly transportation service similar to the way we subscribe to an internet service today with a predefined price, distances and with preselected destinations. While Uber and Lyft do not offer this yet, with self-driving EVs it is possible to envision them promoting such a service in the near future.
The reality is that cars are parked 95% of the time, making them one of the least utilized assets. Economic modeling that studied increasing car utilization from the current 5% to 50% in the future revealed that this will disrupt many industries, companies and business models along with the jobs that these industries provide.
For instance, with EVs dominating the car market, we will need a lot less crude oil and gasoline retail stations. Therefore, the oil industry and its adjacent industries will be seriously disrupted along with the many jobs they provide. In addition, the combustion engine that is banned in France and the UK by 2040, requires on average 2,000 more parts than EVs. This will impact many engine and car manufacturing companies. We already see car manufacturers moving to EVs; Volvo announced that starting in 2019, all models will be either hybrids or powered solely by batteries.
The car sales industry will also be drastically disrupted by TAAS and self-driving EVs. Fewer individual consumers will buy cars and more “institutional” or larger companies will buy fleets of cars directly from manufacturers.
As well, with car use increasing to 50%, there will be less of a need for cars and parking. Traffic patterns and roads will be different with more reliance on AI-based sensors and telecom devices. A disruption in all these industries is imminent.
When we consider the fact that the largest profession in the U.S. is driving for a living and we add all the drivers, the oil, car manufacturing, sales, parking industry and infrastructure workers, there are estimates that some 5 million jobs might be lost nationwide. At the same time, this change will also bring about economic growth and opportunities with new emerging industries, companies and many new jobs. In this likely future, there isn’t going to be a shortage of jobs, but the nature of work will be different and new and more complex set of skills will be required.
Speculative fiction writer William Gibson once said, “The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed." For transportation and adjacent industries, the future will, very soon, be widely distributed. Understanding how these technologies disrupt economic models by applying strategic learning might become an essential skill for individuals and organizations to survive.
This month CareerSource Palm Beach County held its second healthcare summit at CaringPeople in West Palm Beach to address the growing challenge of retaining employees in the healthcare industry.
Healthcare organizations, educators and community partners convened this month to solve current challenges the healthcare industry faces such as staffing shortages, “ghosting,” and employment.
“This summit is a call to action to bring awareness of the challenges in healthcare hiring practices,” Judith Dunn said, the director of business services at CareerSource Palm Beach County. “We have shortages in healthcare teams and are seeing a growing problem in ghosting in the workplace across all generations of the workforce.”
Florida’s population is aging and the healthcare industry anticipates significant increases in the need for healthcare services. However, the supply of healthcare employees in the workforce has not kept pace with the industry’s needs, making it difficult to address the growth. Low wages and insufficient training are believed to be the driving forces behind the shortages in the workforce.
“If this problem continues, it could have serious public health implications such as reduced access to care, diminished quality of care, and an increase in costs for both the business and the individual receiving care,” Judith said.
Speakers at the summit included health care industry experts Cary Friedlander, John Dalton, Karen Gilbert, Sheryl Gitterman as well as input from One Stop Operator Paul Hederman and Rabi Sami, a recruiter at CareerSource Palm Beach County. Participants were also invited to brainstorm and write down suggestions that could alleviate the pressure the shortages in employment may cause.
CareerSource Palm Beach County will be at Sunfest this year! Find our booth across from the Meyer Amphitheater to play games, win fun prizes, and get valuable career advice from the experts.
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