Few seem surprised that Rhode Island's unemployment rate was 12% for May. In fact, the budget proposed by the legislature is a guarantee that future unemployment numbers may even be higher since the budget created no new jobs. From May 2008 to May 2009, the number of unemployed in the state increased by 26,600. Government employment fell by 600 in May. There were declines in jobs in professional and business services, information, manufacturing, education and retailing. Hospitality and construction showed job gains.

To get a real picture of the worker situation in Rhode Island, you also have to consider individuals who have given up looking for a job and the underemployed - those with jobs below their experience. Many of the underemployed are in age groups that make it harder to find jobs when the economy improves.

Where will the jobs be in Rhode Island for the unemployed, the underemployed and recent high school and college graduates? First, it is important to make sure the workforce has the skills needed for whatever jobs become available. Skills such as the ability to deal with people, understand numbers, plan or organize work, use computers to enter, access or retrieve data, work as a team member and use oral and written communication techniques are important for almost all jobs.

There are also special skills, educational requirements and licenses required for many jobs. Jobs with opportunity generally require more education and skills. And second, we need an education system that prepares workers for the future. A college education, by itself, does not guarantee a job. Many individuals look for what jobs are available and adopt their education, training and skills to get the job.

Slower job growth is forecasted for Rhode Island's foreseeable future. Some immediate job opportunities will come from the federal stimulus program in energy and infrastructure, replacement positions for retiring workers, bringing back laid off workers and new positions created as a result of demand for particular products and services.

Career switching and baby-boomer retirement will represent a majority of the new jobs created. Many of the retirement replacements will be in occupations that require a college education. Some companies are trying to retain their maturing workers because of their expertise, and some maturing workers want to continue working because their retirement programs lost a large part of their financial value in the recession.

Based on the economic forecast of the state prepared by Professor Edinaldo Tebaldi of Bryant University and me for the New England Economic Partnership, there is little expectation that the unemployment rate will be lower than 10.7 percent in 2009 and 2010 no matter what positive things happen in the United States economy. The employment sectors showing growth in these two years are construction, information, high tech and government. These will also be the toughest years for new college graduates to enter the job market.

The jobs that will be available in the short-term in construction are engineering, design, cost-estimator and the crafts needed to do the actual construction. There will also be jobs for project managers, structural specialists and contract administrators. Jobs in information and high tech for 2009 and 2010 include jobs with individuals trained in mathematics, statistics, engineering, computer science, the biological sciences and accounting. For information technology, individuals will be needed with experience in information security and data center operations.

The government jobs require individuals with training in business, community/ social service, police and criminal justice, computer support and health care worker. Health care and social assistance jobs will increase because the population will be proportionately older than ever before. The need for nursing homes, assisted living, home assistance and services for the elderly will increase. There will be need for more physical and occupational therapists, radiology technologists and pharmacists.

Some government jobs will be at federal agencies located in Rhode Island. During this period, there will be a considerable decrease in the number of nonprofit employment positions as a result of the consolidation of nonprofit organizations providing the same services.

From 2011 to 2013, 33,000 new jobs will be created in sectors such as construction, chemical manufacturing, transportation equipment manufacturing, information, financial services, professional and business services, education, health, hospitality and high tech. Professional and service jobs will have the largest number of job openings during this time period.

Growing occupations during this period will include nursing, food preparation and serving workers, customer service representatives, social and human service workers, accountants and auditors, logistics and transportation, elementary school teachers, personal financial advisors and computer system analysts. The average unemployment rate for the three year period is forecasted at over 7 percent. To reduce this rate, the state needs an economic development program that creates jobs for the future.

Job opportunities beyond 2013 will be in areas such as nursing, information technology, computer network administrators, public and private school teaching, college faculty positions, software engineering, finance, marketing, environmental sciences, renewable energy, management analysts, medicine and public and education administration. The long term prospects for college graduates are strong.

About one-third of the new job openings in the future will require some college and one-quarter will require a bachelor's degree or more. "Green" jobs will grow faster during this period at firms whose business is dealing with the environment and with environmentally friendly companies looking to improve their eco-friendliness. Occupations such as cutting, punching and press machine operators, textile machine operators, packaging and filing machine operators, order clerks and stock clerks will have a bleak outlook.

Most of future workforce issues in Rhode Island will evolve from the shortage of skills rather than workers. There is a need for continuous skills training. The more training that can be provided by a company, a professional association or a college, the better it will be for the organization and the worker. As the high-tech employment sector grows, the demand for highly-skilled and well-educated workers in information technology, biotechnology, materials science and nanotechnology will increase. In Rhode Island, Hispanics and other minorities will be the fastest growing workforce segment in the state. Rhode Islanders with poor education and no technological skills will be at the bottom of the pay scale.

Rhode Island's competition for jobs in the future will not be with Connecticut and Massachusetts but with southern states and foreign countries. Rhode Island is now part of a global economy driven by information, ideas, cultural values, people and multinational corporations. As more Rhode Islanders work at multinational companies with facilities in the state, employees with expertise in foreign languages, cultural sensitivity and diversity will be needed.