Parenting the Future Workforce

As host of The Dadass Podcast and president of a local chamber of commerce, I believe there is an important conversation we as parents need to be having at home and we’re not. That conversation is related to parenting the future workforce.
 
On the news, we see countless industries in decline like our trades, appraisers, insurance, and more as baby boomers retire. According to a recent Business Insider article, The Forever Labor Shortage, the Congressional Budget Office projects the potential labor force to expand by a mere 3.6 percent between 2022 and 2031 — one-eighth of the pace in the 1970s. This will continue in the decades that follow.
 
Outside of workforce issues, it’s seen in our national security efforts as well. Most of our U.S. military missed its 2023 recruitment goals, making our military the smallest size it’s been since pre-WWII. According to an Army Times article, the U.S. Army had 485,000 in late 2021 to around 452,000 active-duty soldiers today. Now the Army, who has had the largest decrease, is announcing recruiting reforms.
 
As parents, let’s focus on topics like central Ohio being one of the fastest growing regions in the country while also having one of the lowest ratios of houses per job created nationally. This means if you’re an entry level worker, good luck finding something you can afford or a place you actually want to live.
 
A Forbes article from July 2023 says the average student loan debt in America is $28,950 owed per borrower and that about 92 percent of all student debt are federal student loans; the remaining amount is private student loans. So not only does this greatly impact the financial burden when entering the workforce, this is another glaring national issue impacting our country. I’ll stop here. I’m not bold enough (or educated enough) on this topic to go further.
 
The point I’m trying to make is that as parents, we are faced with two decisions that directly impact the future for our children and indirectly shape our future work force and economy:
 

1. The lessons we teach our children help them develop skills needed to be a contributing member of our workforce and communities
2. We need to guide, not dictate, the interests of our children and encourage more than “go to college” as the only option

As parents we have an opportunity to shape the future by the way we choose to parent, but we don’t always think about the impact we can have. The way we raise our children can be what helps to drive regional community building, impact future industries that solve major issues we face (or will face) and it starts with teaching skills that matter like communicating, empathy and curiosity. As we don’t ever want to limit opportunities for our children, let us not limit their future interests that could lead to business ideas and passions that shape the future of our communities, businesses and country.
 
We owe it to our children and to our future workforce.

-Matt Lofy, The Dadass