In this episode of Work in Progress, Joshua Wright, EVP of Growth for Lightcast, discusses The Rising Storm, the labor research group’s forecast of a massive labor shortage over the next eight years and how we can fix the problem before it hurts the economy.

According the Lightcast report, the workforce will face a labor shortage of six million workers between now and 2032, the largest shortage in our country’s history.

Wright says the it is being driven by the retirement of the baby boomer generation, declining birth rates, and reduced participation in the prime-age workforce. But, he adds, while there is no silver bullet, there are ways we can solve the problem by acting now.

It comes down, Wright says, to taking a closer look at the way we educate and train people for the workforce.

“I think fundamentally this is an opportunity. It is a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity to restructure and rethink the systems that were developed. We’re already seeing states do this, creating new workforce and education offices, or putting those two together and thinking of, ‘How do we transform our education and workforce systems?'”

He goes into details on those solutions for developing more workforce programs to upskill and retain existing workers. Wright says employers play a key role in this strategy, as do the education institutions and local and state governments.

In the podcast, Wright also explains how technology can help speed up these solutions and he addresses the role immigration has always played, and should continue to play, in our labor force.

You can listen to the entire conversation here, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 345: Joshua Wright, EVP of Growth, Lightcast
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here