LVEDC Director of Talent Supply Karianne Gelinas

Each week, Karianne Gelinas, Director of Talent Supply with the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), will provide an update and additional information about its ongoing initiative to identify talent supply and demand issues in the region and create a strategy that results in a broader, ongoing understanding of the Lehigh Valley workforce. (See past updates.)

Our talent supply study has continued to progress, and the LVEDC Education and Talent Supply Council received an update about the initiative during its Dec. 13 meeting.

The council heard preliminary data gathered based upon telephone surveys of employers conducted by MDB Insight, the Toronto-based company selected to lead the talent supply initiative. MDB Insight is collecting information from employers, educators, and others about their experiences and issues in talent supply and demand.

The Dec. 13 meeting did not include additional information that MDB Insight is gathering from one-on-one interviews and focus groups. More of that data will be available in later dates.

However, it was reported that 76 percent of respondents (157 individuals) consider a skilled workforce very important for future growth of business operations, which confirms the importance of the ongoing study.

Click here to read more about LVEDC’s ongoing talent supply initiative. Click here to see previous talent supply initiative updates.