In episode 56, Coffey talks with Richard Froeschle about workforce and economic trends in Texas and the US.

They discuss how the “COVID-based recession” affected the economy; its correlation to inflation and the labor market; the effect of stimulus spending on the labor force participation; how the born-digital generation defines “work” and their new expectations; the Texas labor shortage outlook; what “capacity” means in terms of the economy; how economists try to identify skills that meet the evolving labor market’s requirements; the effect of inflation on wages; the reasons why people are leaving jobs; and the future of remote and flexible work environments.

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Richard Froeschle

Mr. Froeschle is a labor market economist and a highly regarded speaker on a wide array of topics relating to the Texas economy, regional labor markets, and workforce and education programs. He is the Senior Labor Market Economist for Texas State Technical College and the former Director of the Labor Market and Career Information department of the Texas Workforce Commission. Prior to his work with Texas State government, Mr. Froeschle conducted in-service training with the National Labor Market Information Training Institute at the University of North Texas in the areas of strategic planning and regional economic analysis for state and federal employment and training programs.

Mr. Froeschle has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s degree in Manpower and Industrial Relations from the University of North Texas, where he also taught microeconomics, regional labor market analysis, and workforce strategic planning.

His writings include the books How Many is Enough? A Practitioners Guide to Occupational Targeting and Supply/Demand Analysis (forthcoming), Where the Jobs Are, Working Texas Style, An Atmosphere of Enterprise, and a dozen monographs including Life After COVID: Economic & Job Market Phenomena to Ponder Postpandemic, Targeting Your Labor Market, Getting Down to Business, and The Texas Economy: An Age of Global Economic Opportunity. His many essays and briefs are focused on the application of labor market and career information in education policy, workforce planning and economic development.

His most recent research has centered on the use of skills to understand regional labor market dynamics and career progression and includes three reports, The Future is Ahead of You: Navigating Your Way to Career Success, Everyone Starts Somewhere: Career Pathways in the Heart of Texas, and On the Move! Exploring the Concepts of Career Progressions and Career Lattices for Central Texas Workers.

Mr. Froeschle has made presentations at over 540 conference events over the past twenty-five years on a variety of labor market topics. His professional specialties and interests are in the fields of regional economic analysis, labor market dynamics, skill and job analysis, and the development and interpretation of labor market information; all of which have occupied his career for the past 41 years