Aug. 20—Georgia Chamber of Commerce CEO Chris Clark put into words what employers are discovering more and more: Workers aren't competing for jobs anymore — employers are competing for workers.

He gave a presentation on the state's business outlook over the coming decades to a packed Ritz Theater auditorium full of business leaders, employers, politicians and government officials.

It involved a lot of numbers that point to an inescapable conclusion: the workforce is changing, and businesses have to change to accommodate it.

Georgia boasts the sixth fasted growing economy in the country, posting the fourth consecutive year of record growth and outperforming Florida, North Carolina and Texas, the most comparable economies.

Businesses have invested $42.9 billion in the state since 2019, creating close to 120,000 jobs, easily making up for those lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Clark added that 77% of economic development has occurred outside of metro Atlanta.

It's not all rosy, however. Average household income is up, but gains are being lost to rising gas and food costs resulting from inflation.

Most of this would be good news were it not for the simultaneously shrinking workforce. There are 11 million job openings in the U.S., he said, but 3.9 million fewer workers now than in 2019.

In Georgia, 400,000 jobs are waiting to be filled, Clark said. Most are in health care, manufacturing, retail, hospitality and education, and demand for those positions is only expected to increase.

Most of those leaving the job market entirely are women and retirees. Based on surveys, many are leaving to be caretakers for children or older family members.

He joked that his audience wasn't having enough children but said the truth was that millennials and Generation Z might not make up the difference.

Restrictive immigration policies instituted by the Trump administration and either continued or replaced with others not much better mean immigrant labor can't fill the gap. The country also hosts 3 million fewer VISA holders, he said.

Ultimately, the labor force participation rate has dropped substantially from 70% in 1995 to around 62%.

So what's the solution?

Clark detailed a plan called "The New Georgia Economy" that won't immediately solve any problems but could stabilize the economy within a decade.

He broke it down into three categories — a war for talent, economic innovation and inclusion, and infrastructure of the future.

In the war for talent, it's all about meeting the needs of employees to boost recruitment and retention.

First on the list is workforce housing, he said.

"A teacher can't afford a $400,000 home. Neither can a police officer or a worker at Hyundai," Clark said.

Based on recent research, Clark said the top reasons for a departure are lack of advancement opportunities; salaries, benefits and flexibility; poor leadership; lack of meaningful work; and health and wellness support.

More than anything, most want a job with clear opportunities for advancement with the flexibility to work how they want and that provides workplace support for stress and mental health.

The management style popular with up-and-coming workers is less of a top-down authoritarian and more of a coach.

"They want someone who cares and supports them," Clark said.

Workplace trends support this, he said. By 2025, only half of the workers nationwide will have to go to work every day of the week. Another 10% will work from home and 40% will hold hybrid office hours and remote work schedules.

By 2030, he said it will be closer to 70% hybrid.

The reason? Work-life balance is more important to workers than ever. It allows them to be caretakers while holding down a full-time job and lessens the pressure of a 9-to-5 routine.

The most common reasons for employees staying in their jobs are flexibility; meaningful work; salary and benefits; health and wellness support; and an inclusive work environment, he said.

Economic innovation and inclusion largely involve training the next generation to be entrepreneurs and supporting minority and women-owned businesses. Even if a student isn't planning to start their own business, learning entrepreneurial skills has a knock-on effect that can only benefit the state economy.

It's also going to involve destigmatizing trade schools and technical colleges. Some blame rests on the state, which long encouraged every student to get a four-year college degree, he said.

"You know what the No. 1 career path is? It's marketing. That's not a career path, that's something cool that high school kids talk about. Engineering is a career path," Clark said.

An engineer, welder or heavy equipment operator is just as much a skilled professional as someone in any other field, he said.

Infrastructure of the future is a variety of things, he said. In the past, it was roads, bridges, power lines, broadband, etc.

If the business world wants to adapt to the needs of its workforce, that definition needs to expand to include things like health care and electric vehicle charging networks.

"We need to think of health care not as infrastructure, not as a service. A service is optional," Clark said. "If I need it (health care) and I don't get it, I'll die ... If your employees aren't healthy, they aren't successful and you aren't successful."

Joel Willis, executive director of Epworth by the Sea, doesn't think Clark's presentation told the whole story.

Epworth already does care for its employees in many of the ways Clark suggested they should. It has hands-on management willing to work with and get to know the people they supervise and they often help their workers through rough patches in their lives. And yet, it's very common for a job interviewee to turn down a job offer if they follow up at all.

Seaboard Construction Vice President Jeff Kicklighter said his company has already started finding ways to reach kids coming up through high school by working with the Golden Isles College and Career Academy to create heavy equipment operator classes.

"Our hiring practices needed to change before I heard this, but this just reinforced it," Kicklighter said.

Hiring is a great concern for Robert Burr, executive director of the Glynn County Airport Commission, as the county's two airports have tenants who have a wide range of needs. Most pressing is the need for more pilots, who must retire from commercial flying at 65. New pilots aren't entering the job market fast enough to replace them.

Seeing the figures Clark presented was eye-opening, Burr said. He already knew the scales had tipped and that employers needed to be more competitive, but not to what extent.

At the beginning of the presentation, Brunswick Mayor Cosby Johnson, the state chamber's vice president of governmental affairs, introduced Clark, who gave glowing remarks about the Golden Isles.

"You wake up every day in a wonderful community," Clark said. "You have the best mayor, the best chamber president."

Ralph Staffins, president of the Brunswick Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce, stands out among regional chamber leaders, he said. Southeast Georgia would not have the voice in Atlanta that it does without him, Clark said.

"You had a good model to follow," Clark said, gesturing to immediate past president Woody Woodside.