Study: 290,000 Idaho Jobs to Be Available By 2020

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Nearly 290,000 jobs will become available in Idaho by 2020, a new study says.

Georgetown University’s Center for Education and the Workforce in a study finds the fastest-growing occupations will be health care support, health care professional and technical positions, community services and the arts. The fastest-growing industries will be education services, followed by finance and insurance.

The study also finds 68 percent of all jobs in the state by 2020 will require formal education after high school.

Report co-author Nicole Smith told Boise State Public Radio that Idaho’s need for education is growing faster than most states.

“But certainly not faster than the District of Columbia, Minnesota, Colorado, Massachusetts and North Dakota,” Smith said.

Idaho officials used the school’s previous prediction to set goals for young workers to get more education after high school. Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna said the State Board of Education, of which he is a member, will likely consider the new study as well.

“It’s realistic to think that the goal we have set will change and be updated going forward,” Luna said. “What I know is we have a goal of 60 percent by 2020 and we have a long ways to go just to get to that goal.”

Even if Idaho doesn’t meet those goals, Smith said it’s possible workers with the education might be enticed to move to Idaho for the jobs.

“If those jobs exist and Idaho does not have the capacity based on the educational attainment of its workforce to fill those jobs, then the jobs will go elsewhere or Idaho will have to rely on imports of workers from neighboring states,” she said.