Supporting a 21st Century Workforce in Puerto Rico: Challenges and Options for Improving Puerto Rico's Workforce System Following Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017
On August 8, 2018, the government of Puerto Rico submitted to Congress an economic and disaster recovery plan, as required by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. Under contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) provided substantial support in developing the plan by soliciting and integrating inputs from a wide variety of stakeholders, contributing analysis where needed, and assisting drafting the plan. The plan included an overview of damage and needs, courses of action (COAs) to meet those needs, costs of the COAs, and potential funding mechanisms for those costs.
To support federal agencies evaluating and funding recovery actions, HSOAC is releasing this detailed volume for the economic sector, which is one of 12 HSOAC research sectors that helped develop the recovery plan. HSOAC developed supporting information for each sector engaged as part of recovery planning. While the other sector reports describe conditions and actions that contribute to economic outcomes, the Economics Sector volumes are focused on the preexisting conditions and policies that contributed to the economic contraction before Hurricanes Irma and Maria and the potential actions that could be taken to promote economic growth in the poststorm period.
The purpose of this document is to give decisionmakers more detail on the workforce challenges confronting Puerto Rico prior to the 2017 hurricane season, and directly afterward, and to offer suggested strategies to design and implement workforce development programs and an overarching system that will help meet short-term and long-term workforce needs and support the government of Puerto Rico in meeting its strategic objective to develop a 21st-century workforce. Data collection and analysis for this report occurred from January through June 2018. This report is a companion document to another Economics Sector report, Challenges and Opportunities for the Puerto Rico Economy: A Review of Evidence and Options Following Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 (forthcoming), which summarizes the sector’s courses of action described in the recovery plan and provides more details on how the government of Puerto Rico can develop its economy in the wake of the 2017 hurricanes.