In Massachusetts, competitiveness is fundamentally about people. It always has been. Access to a well-educated, well-trained and diverse talent pool has been the state’s calling card for decades – even centuries – fueled by world-class higher education institutions, foundational industry clusters, and an innovation ecosystem like nowhere else in the world.

There are signs, however, that our talent advantage could be in jeopardy. In a soon-to-be-released survey of Roundtable members, nearly 75% of respondents expect some difficulty in recruiting talent over the next year or two, due primarily to the inability to find people (70%) or the difficulty in getting them to move here (43%). High cost of living, troubling outmigration patterns, and dwindling population growth due to changing demographics are combining to threaten the state’s long-term competitiveness.

Policy solutions, many supported by the Roundtable, seek to address these challenges. These include policies aimed to recruit and retain talent by reducing the high cost of housing, providing access to affordable and high-quality childcare, investing in transportation infrastructure, and creating a competitive tax environment. In addition, connecting workers to training opportunities aligned with in-demand jobs, advocating for innovation pathways like early college, apprenticeship models, and utilizing the state’s rich resource of career and technical education and community colleges are all key components of the state’s talent development strategy.

There is also another way to address our need to find more talent: tap into untapped talent sources. A key pillar of the Roundtable’s Talent Agenda is to create diverse talent pipelines, and a priority strategy within that pillar is to grow the talent pool by “expanding career opportunities for immigrant professionals with international credentials.” According to data compiled by the UMass Donahue Institute, the Massachusetts population in 2021 was comprised of 17.6% foreign born residents, the 7th highest in the nation. From real estate and accounting to tech and the life sciences, Massachusetts-based employers are challenged by the desire to hire diverse talent yet limited by the pool of applicants. At the same time, too many immigrants are blocked from full participation in the workforce with challenges including English as a second language, the lack of US-based work experience, regulatory hurdles, and additional barriers such as access to educational opportunities.

At the Roundtable, we are exploring a variety of measures to tap untapped talent, including eliminating barriers to the workforce for immigrants with international credentials and connecting employers with rising talent from Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) for in demand jobs. The Roundtable also supports the current proposal to provide in-state tuition to immigrants without legal status who have attended a Massachusetts high school for at least three years and graduated or obtained their GED here.

Nearly 70% of respondents in the Roundtable’s survey indicated that their ability to attract and retain diverse and world-class talent in Massachusetts is a key factor influencing their decision to stay in the state over the next 1 to 2 years. As that talent is increasingly less available or living elsewhere, developing a pipeline of immigrant workers here, including reducing barriers to education and entering our workforce, will play a critical role in maintaining the state’s historical competitive advantage…its people.