Mark Mattke, CEO of the Spokane Workforce Council, predicts that the workforce market will become a war for talent in coming years. 

Consequently, two of the organization's overarching goals are to help foster a skilled labor pool and collaborate with businesses on strategies to help attract and retain talented employees in this new environment, Mattke says.

“We need people with the right skills to be able to go to work and plug into the economy,” he says. “If we can help embed those different skills in our workforce, then we are going to stand a better chance of having businesses that are more successful, that are able to grow, and able to prosper.”

That approach is part of the Workforce Council's latest local integrated workforce plan for 2024 to 2028, which was approved in June. 

During the pandemic, there were record levels of unemployment, but as the event subsided, there were also record levels of total employment, Mattke says. Yet there were still large levels of workforce shortages as people were slow to return to the office and selective about where they wanted to work, he says. 

In that competitive market, the Spokane Workforce Council is working with businesses to understand what it means to be competitive and how to distinguish themselves as a desirable employer among their competitors. A few of the traits competitive employers offer their workforce include compensation and benefits, opportunities for advancement, tuition reimbursement, child care support, and transportation support. 

To foster a skilled labor pool, talented workers typically are willing to learn new skills and have the necessary technological tools to succeed, Mattke says. The advent of artificial intelligence, for example, is a technological advancement that's changing most jobs across the economy. Spokane’s workers need to be prepared to withstand the impacts of AI by being able to use it to complement the work they do and not be left behind, Mattke says. 

Spokane will continue to endure workforce shortages for the foreseeable future, an issue that is compounded by the fact that the Inland Northwest, like the rest of the country, has a declining birth rate, thousands of baby boomers retiring or on the cusp of retirement, and not enough workers behind them to replace those roles, Mattke says. Therefore, the Spokane Workforce Council also is turning to untapped or underserved populations in the region including Black communities, Latino communities, Native American communities, disabled people, and youth. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the labor participation rate for Spokane County as of 2023 was 58.7%, compared to 62% for the state and national average. In the years leading up to the pandemic, the labor participation rate in Spokane County steadily increased to 62.5% in 2019 from 58.4% in 2015.

According to the Spokane Workforce Council plan, total employment in Spokane County has increased by 17,606 jobs, or 6.6%, from 2018 to 2023, outpacing the national rate by 3 percentage points. Slower growth is predicted with 15,000 jobs projected to be added over the next five years in Spokane County. The key to fulfilling the anticipated demand for workers will rest on efforts to grow and maximize the labor force within all populations, the report states.

Patrick Jones, executive director of the Institute for Public Policy and Economics Analysis at Eastern Washington University, also has cited the supply of workers as Spokane’s most pressing issue in previous Journal articles. He contends that increasing the labor participation of baby boomers, women, the disabled, and immigrants could potentially bolster the region’s labor force. 

Mattke says tapping into these underserved communities will require a more innovative and effective approach, as the organization hasn't always been successful in connecting with them in the past. 

“We’ve got a lot of people living in poverty across the Spokane area, and it’s our imperative to get more people into the middle class,” he says. “So we have our work to do on both sides. One is for the benefit of the business and then for the benefit of the people.” 

The Spokane Workforce Council was established in 2014 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation with the intent to strengthen the local workforce through critical insights, research, funding, and strategic partnerships. The organization is located at 140 S. Arthur on the WorkSource Spokane one-stop campus, which includes a youth career development center called Next Generation Zone. The Spokane Workforce Council has about 100 employees and the Next Generation Zone is operated by about 25. The Workforce Council served over 8,000 job seekers and 1,500 businesses last year. 

To help businesses and job seekers, the Spokane Workforce Council is partnering with targeted industries that drive the regional economy, Mattke says. According to the organization’s plan, health care and social assistance continue to be the largest sectors in the Spokane area with 47,670 jobs, accounting for 1 in 5 jobs locally. 

The plan notes that registered nurse openings continue to be the most-posted occupation in any industry. To help more people get skilled and educated to enter health care roles in the region, the Spokane Workforce Council was awarded $2 million under the Good Jobs Challenge grant in Washington state to collaborate with educational and health care institutions to improve the in-demand talent pipeline needed at these organizations. 

Additionally, Spokane Workforce Council is partnering with health care organizations to help current employees get the skills to move up in their careers and create a space for new workers to come in. 

Other growing sectors include construction, public education, clean energy, and clean tech jobs, including advanced manufacturing, Mattke says. 

“There’s a lot of work underway in the Spokane area to change how we do aerospace and advanced manufacturing and move into more use of thermoplastics and composites to help the next generation of aircraft that are going to be built in Washington state,” Mattke says. “That’s an opportunity for us to really get ahead of that and for a locus of activity and a center of expertise for working in that arena.” 

According to data from the American Aerospace Materials Manufacturing Center, the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area is positioned at the heart of the Interstate 90 aerospace corridor and includes 900 aerospace manufacturers within a 300-mile radius, the Spokane International Airport, and a highly educated local population. 

Mattke contends the Spokane area is still in an employee market with forecasted workforce shortages in the foreseeable future. While it’s important to tap into all of the county’s populations to meet workforce demands, workers also have to be prepared to take on those roles, he says. 

“It may be an employee market, but it’s also a skills market,” he says. “That’s the gap, a mismatch between what employees need and what people have to offer.”