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Report: 25,000 High-Skill Jobs Going Unfilled

UW Computer Science & Engineering Students.
UW Computer Science & Engineering Students Photo: cs.washington.edu

A new report out today from the Washington Roundtable shows that as many as 25,000 high-skills jobs are going unfilled in Washington State.

From the Seattle Times:

This week, the business group Washington Roundtable released a study that says 25,000 high-skill jobs in Washington are going unfilled — jobs that have remained vacant for three months or longer, because qualified workers can’t be found to fill them.

By way of background, UW had to turn away 425 qualified students from Computer Science & Engineering last year due to a lack of resources.

Employers, meanwhile, say they can’t get enough of UW graduates:

“We have a standing discussion with University of Washington computer science — anybody you graduate, we’ll take,” said Singh, CEO of Redmond-based Concur Technologies.

The Times story also highlights the painful cuts made during the Great Recession to public higher education in Washington State, and the need to begin to reinvest, especially in high-demand, high-cost fields like STEM.

“We’ve demonstrated that if you invest in higher education, there’s a clear return on investment,” said Steve Mullin, Washington Roundtable president. “When you try to think how we should invest our scarce economic-development resources, we’re suggesting this should be the priority.”

Read the rest of the Times story, and the Washington Roundtable report.