A new report says Wisconsin must invest in more training to prepare needed workers for the nearly half a million new and replacement jobs expected by 2016 that will require education beyond high school but short of a four-year university degree.

The state also can gain a competitive edge in the economic recovery if businesses and policy-makers use the national recession as a time to provide skills training for the more than 426,000 jobs, according to the report from the Workforce Alliance and the Skills2Compete-Wisconsin campaign.

The study also found:

• So-called "middle-skill jobs" will account for 46 percent of all openings between now and 2016.

• Shortages in manufacturing and health care will increase. A survey of the health care work force in central Wisconsin finds that more than 25 percent of workers plan to retire within 10 years - 28 percent of them nurses.

• Middle-skill jobs expected to grow in Wisconsin include police and sheriff's patrol officers, with an average annual wage of $45,269; carpenters, at $38,760; and registered nurses, at $57,376.

The report is funded by the Joyce Foundation, Ford Foundation and Milwaukee Area Workforce Funding Alliance. For more information, see skills2compete.org/Wisconsin.

- Karen Rivedal

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