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Details
Competitive Wisconsin, Inc. understands that focusing on workforce recruitment and retention will require significant future investments. The BeBold4 initiative will be heavily focused on identifying sustainable revenue streams for the BOLD systemic opportunities that will be identified throughout the process.

Details
There is a wealth of sound data that indicates that Wisconsin needs to grow its residential workforce by thousands of people each year for the next twenty years to meet the projected demand. What is less well researched and discussed from a public policy standpoint is the fact that each unfilled job translates into a loss of tax revenue for the state.

Details
To be clear, Wisconsin does an amazing job of retaining in-state graduates - close to 85% of in-state graduates remain in state. The challenge we face is retaining (maybe we should consider it recruiting as well) close to 85% of our UW graduates who come from out of state.

Details
As of May 2018, there were over 80,000 job openings posted on the state DWI website. Our workforce population age 18 to 64 is expected to DECREASE by .05% over the next 20yrs. Wisconsin's birth rate has declined significantly since the 1960s. 118,000 workers are projected to leave the workforce in the next 20yrs. We cannot solve our workforce shortages without recruiting out of state current and future workers.

Bold Ideas

Keeping Parents in the Workforce: Energy Capital Cooperative

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RN Bonus and Travellers Program

To fill hundreds of open nursing positions, UC Health improved benefits to nursing employees

State Sponsored Scholarship Tied to Work/Residency Requirements

The Excelsior program allows for New York residents to qualify for tuition-free enrollment at all CUNY and SUNY two- and four-year colleges if students are willing to commit to working within the state for a fixed period of time post-graduation.

Program Sponsorship
The program is sponsored by the State of New York and is managed by New York’s Higher Education Services Corporation.

Program Impact
While the program was just instituted in 2017, in its first year there were 75,000 students who applied, which was more than 3 times the anticipated amount. 940,000 families are estimated to be eligible by 2019

Observations / Insights
  • This program is unique in terms of pairing a large magnitude state-sponsored scholarship program with strict residency requirements and claw-back mechanisms.
  • The state legislature appropriated $87 M for the first year of the program, which may be insufficient to cover all qualified applicants leading to a shortfall.
  • Critics of the program have pointed to the administrative difficulties of managing residency verification processes and administrating loans for noncompliant graduates.

Program Website

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On the Front Lines

Can Wisconsin's Economy Survive Without Immigrant Labor?