(The Center Square) – Gov. Mike DeWine praised a plan by a Columbus-based policy group that calls for a state-based immigration policy to allow Ohio to attract legal immigrants to fill a growing need in the high-tech labor force.
The Buckeye Institute recently released a report on how a state-based visa program could impact what it called urgent problems in the high-tech job market. That followed the group’s plan to upskill and reskill Ohio workers to meet labor shortages.
DeWine called the plan a practical solution.
“Having highly skilled workers to fill the jobs that Intel and other companies are creating in Ohio is critical,” DeWine said. “This report by The Buckeye Institute offers practical solutions to attracting highly-skilled, legal immigrants to help Ohio fill the jobs of the future.”
Logan Kolas, an economic policy analyst with the Economic Research Center at The Buckeye Institute, said in his report that two-thirds of Ohio’s counties had lost population over the last 10 years, and the trend means the state needs to draw workers from other states and other countries.
“Intel’s recent decision to invest $20 billion in state-of-the-art semiconductor plants in Ohio has drawn national attention to the Buckeye State’s critical high-skilled worker shortage,” Kolas said. “By adopting a comprehensive approach upskilling and reskilling Ohio’s workers and simultaneously attracting qualified and highly skilled immigrants to Ohio, state and federal policymakers can ensure Ohio has the workers needed to fill jobs – particularly in national security-sensitive industries.”
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted agreed, saying drawing talent to the state should be part of the overall goal.
“In Ohio, we are creating jobs faster than we can find people to fill them,” Husted said. “Employers still can’t fill all of the jobs they are creating even though every Ohioan who wants to work has access to in-demand credentials through their local career centers, Ohio Means Jobs Centers, or with TechCred and IMAP. To continue to grow our economy, it’s important we consider all avenues for solving the workforce shortage. Recruiting talent to Ohio is another approach we should leverage to strengthen Ohio’s overall workforce development strategy.”
The report called on state and federal policymakers to develop a new high-skilled immigration policy that would be flexible for each state to admit immigrants it wants to admit.
“Such a policy would better align immigrant skill sets with the sorts of economic activities that each state pursues. It would replace the federal one-size-fits-all approach with a more tailored plan that is more sensitive to the nuances of local employers and markets,” the report reads.
