HOLLAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – A one-time state lawmaker from the Lakeshore is the latest to sound the alarm about the lack of skilled workers in Michigan.
Joe Haveman expressed his concerns in an op-ed piece that ran in Friday’s Detroit Free Press editions entitled “The Trouble Behind Michigan’s Unemployment Rate.” “We need to celebrate our economic growth and the way that Michigan (has become) the comeback state,” he said in a Friday interview on “WHTC Talk of the Town,” “but we also have to recognize the fact that our labor participation rate is at an all-time low, and that, ultimately, if we don’t do something that, is going to stifle economic growth throughout the state.”
The Holland Republican, who has been the Director of Government Relations at Hope Network since being term-limited out of the state House in 2014, stressed the need for more apprenticeship programs, developed by local companies and economies, to help close the skills gap. A link to the podcast of the entire interview with Joe Haveman is here.
