Page 7 - BusinessWest April 15, 2024

meet its energy needs in the future as it moves on from nuclear power and some fossil fuels to natural gas and clean-energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydro, for which infrastruc- tures must be built.
“If it’s not done quickly, 10 years from now, 15 years from now, I don’t think we’re going to be at a point where we have as much control over turning the ship around,” she told Business- West, adding, again, that the responsi- bility for turning the ship, and the costs involved, must be borne by all constitu- encies, and not simply the business community.
“We have to be thoughtful and inten- tional about how everyone has a role,” she went on. “What AIM has said consistently is that this cannot be a burden that is carried by the business community alone. We know that our businesses are really taxed right now; they’re at a point where many of them are just barely getting by, and they’re
in a real competition for talent and resources.”
“We have to look at this because, as we see the demographic shift, as we see folks retiring, we’re going to have a real problem if we’re not saying to those young folks, ‘this is where you want to stay and work and raise a family.’”
While she’s generally optimistic that the ship can, in fact, be turned, she is troubled by much of what she’s seeing, especially the exodus of talent to other states. She noted that 22- to 35-year-olds are leaving the state at
a rate of 35%, a number significantly higher than it has been historically.
And they’re leaving primarily because of the high cost of living, she said, noting that, while it’s always been expensive to live in Greater Boston — she had to work two jobs to afford her first home — it is much harder to make ends meet now, as evidenced by those two AIM employ- ees who packed the car and moved south and west.
“That’s what I worry about — that’s your talent, those are your creative minds,” Thomson said. “Those are the folks who are going to bring
the innovation that has made our economy so great. And we’re not selling them on staying here in Massachusetts.”
And these young people are leav- ing just as the Baby Boomers are leaving the workforce, she went on, noting that the state now has what would be called an older workforce, with an average age around 40.
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“We have to look at this because, as we see the demographic shift, as we see folks retiring, we’re going to have
a real problem if we’re not saying to those young folks, ‘this is where you want to stay and work and raise a fam- ily,’” she noted. “I really do worry about it, and it’s worse in certain areas and worse in certain industries; the average age of a utility lineman is 57 years old. How are we going to make the energy investments, upgrades, and transitions we need if we don’t have the workforce that’s capable of doing it?”
There are ongoing initiatives to gen- erate interest in such fields, Thomson went on, but the challenge is the full
slate of issues that must be addressed simultaneously — and soon.
Which begs the question: where to start?
“The hard thing is, we’re going to have to do a lot of things at once,” she said. “We must take aggressive actions on housing because it’s going to take long, and the price of not acting now
is that, once you start losing folks at
a high rate, they’re not going to come back. And even if we can build more housing and find creative ways to make some affordable housing, Massachu- setts is going to be more expensive than some states.”
It’s the same with the other issues
on that long list as well, Thomson went on, adding that, when it comes to hous- ing, new businesses, or other forms
of change, communities will need to
be willing to adjust — or suffer the consequences.
“Communities that say, ‘this is what my community looks now, change is hard, and we don’t want to adapt,’ those communities are going to lose out to those who are willing to be more adap- tive,” she noted. “And then the question is ... do we have enough consensus as
a state, enough communities willing to step up and do it, that we’re success- ful?” BW
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