Rhode Island’s recession has focused on the people out of work. And for good reason.

More than 35,000 residents are jobless. The state’s 6.1-percent unemployment rate in March is the highest in New England and well above the national rate of 5 percent.

But there’s another, equally important indicator that’s largely overlooked. It’s called the job vacancy rate and it measures the jobs that go unfilled because of a lack of qualified candidates.

Rhode Island’s rate, especially in the health-care and science sectors, runs pretty high –– meaning employers are having trouble finding the workers they need. That’s critical because companies can’t expand unless they can tap an available work force. And if the economy doesn’t grow, the state doesn’t collect the taxes it needs to provide basic services.

One answer to the mismatch between unfilled jobs and the jobless is to strengthen the link between business and education to prepare students and retrain workers for good-paying employment.

Listen to Paul Harrington, a labor-market analyst from Northeastern University, who has extensively studied Rhode Island’s job situation.

“Even during an economic decline, there are sectors that do well and can lead a region out of a recession,” he said. “That’s why the relationship between business and universities is important… Successful colleges have a relationship with the business community. They educate for jobs.”

He also makes these points:

•The high cost of housing earlier this decade wasn’t the main reason that drove college graduates to other, less-expensive states. What pushed them from Rhode Island and New England to other regions was the lack of jobs that fit their skills.

•The first salary a young worker is paid guides the earnings he or she will make the rest of a career. When people start low, as they tend to do in Rhode Island, they will always be behind other workers in other states.

•The graying of the work force and the retirement of the baby-boomer generation means companies will lose the talent, skills and experience gained during long careers. The loss of productivity and workplace knowledge will not easily be replaced.

Job training, or retraining, by building an education system that graduates students with the skills demanded by the workplace is an answer to all three issues.

Harrington said Rhode Island’s job-vacancy rate is especially high in health care, as well as engineering, information technology and computer science. And here’s the point. Those are the jobs the state should be encouraging because of the high salaries that they pay. The workers hired in health care start at about $66,000. The math and science sectors pay about $60,000, while those in the social sciences get about $38,000.

State leaders “have to do a better job coordinating the relationship between companies desperate for job candidates and the state’s education system,” he said.

Governor Carcieri and Jack Warner, commissioner of higher education for Rhode Island, listened to Harrington speak at a recent breakfast for business leaders and educators. They said they understood the need for the linkage.

“We need more robust partnerships,” said Warner. “We need businesses to tell us how to do it…. Students need to see the relevance of their studies to work. They need to see a desirable outcome.”

While the concept is clear, the key will be the execution.

Some partnerships have already started.

Fidelity Investments has opened offices in Smithfield and Providence and established relationships with several schools, including the University of Rhode Island and Bryant University.

Joseph Pratt, Fidelity’s director of public affairs, said the Boston-based mutual fund company located and expanded in Rhode Island because the state has a large number of college graduates. In addition, T.F. Green Airport and the train station offer central sources of transportation and Rhode Island government and education leaders have reached out to the company.

In return, Fidelity works with URI to sponsor a symposium to boost the profile of the financial-services industry and find the job candidates the company needs. Fidelity supports Bryant and its activities, and in return has created a pipeline to graduates from the campus across the street from company offices in Smithfield.

Another partnership has been set up between the Lifespan network and the Community College of Rhode Island to develop programs to train nurses, one of the greatest needs at hospitals.

Brandon Melton Sr., vice president of human resources at Lifespan, said the large number of vacancies in health-care jobs is forecast to grow into a public-health crisis if enough trained workers can’t be found.

He said the company is willing to invest in education programs at colleges because the financial equation works in Lifespan’s favor.

When the hospital network calculated the cost of overtime and hiring contract workers, it made more sense financially to spend that money on education programs that train the needed workers.

“It is in our best financial interest to invest in the work force because we save money,” he said.

Another school, Johnson & Wales University, has worked to design programs that produce employees needed by smaller companies by fostering the Small Business Development Center located on its campus.

“There is no one silver bullet,” said David Mitchell, dean of the College of Business. “We’ve structured many integrated and layered relationships to retain Rhode Island kids and keep non-Rhode Island people here.”

And here’s another point that Harrington makes.

All recessions end.

Smart state leaders are preparing now, during the slump, for a rebound.

“Rhode Island will take its lumps during the recession; the question is how does the state grow when the recovery comes,” Harrington said. “Any recovery will be constrained by the labor supply... Rhode Island missed an opportunity in 2005 and 2006 and couldn’t create a labor supply to meet unfilled need… You have to figure out what the structure of higher education should be. What are the priorities.”

jkostrze@projo.com