Employers Overlooking Vital Untapped Talent Pool

November 12, 2019

President Anthony Benoit responded to a Boston Globe article regarding the state’s 2.9 percent jobless rate and reinforced the importance of rethinking what constitutes a job candidate in today’s economy.

Here is the full text of President Benoit’s published letter to the editor:

Larry Edelman’s article on the state economy (“State’s low jobless rate takes a bite out of economic growth,” Page A1, Oct. 31) reiterated the common complaint that businesses in Massachusetts can’t find enough skilled workers. But the savviest business leaders in the Commonwealth are learning that the supply of potential employees is larger when they rethink what constitutes a job candidate in today’s economy.

Looking beyond crude requirements such as a bachelor’s degree or specific work experiences opens businesses to the untapped talent pool at two-year colleges and other non-college training programs. While the state’s joblessness rate hovers around 2.9 percent, these accomplished yet overlooked students hail from Boston-area neighborhoods where unemployment is above average. When Massachusetts businesses invest in training, onboarding, and supervising this population of students, they see return on their investment in two years or less.

The problem facing Massachusetts businesses is not a lack of workers, but a skewed definition of a viable job candidate.

Anthony Benoit
President
Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology

Read Benoit’s letter on the Boston Globe website.