A new report released by the Boston Consulting Group and the Washington Roundtable identifies the benefits to state residents and employers from closing the “skills gap” – the mismatch between the jobs available and the qualifications of the workers seeking employment.

Here are some highlights from the press release. See also the complete Great Jobs Within Our Reach report and a short fact sheet.

    •    There are 25,000 “acute” unfilled jobs in Washington today – jobs that have been unfilled for three months or more due to a lack of qualified candidates.
•    The gap is projected to grow by another 5,000 jobs per year, reaching 50,000 jobs, by 2017.  Ninety percent of those openings will be in health care and STEM roles.
•    Due to the multiplier effect, filling the job skills gap will generate an additional 110,000 jobs in Washington across many sectors by 2017.

STEM education has been a widely-acknowledged priority in recent years. The significant contribution made by this report is in the clearly stated quantification of economic benefits to our state.

The report has already received good coverage, including a positive editorial in the Seattle Times, this Crosscut article, and an insightful blog post by Microsoft General Counsel and Roundtable board member Brad Smith.