A worker at Hagbros Precision, LLC. A worker at Hagbros Precision, LLC.[/caption]

The Round Rock Chamber of Commerce released a workforce development strategy with recommendations to address the need for additional labor in the city and area.

The document, named the Workforce Realization Occurring Cooperatively, or WROC, highlights a variety of ideas to increase and retain workers in the area, from initiating public relations campaigns promoting skilled trades to creating an employer-subsidized transportation system.

Mike Odom, president and CEO of the chamber, said the idea for the document came from meeting with local businesses and hearing about their concerns for their short- and long-term labor needs.

"We just heard this constantly from our investors so we knew we needed to address it in a major way," Odom said.

According to the document, the success of the Central Texas economy has led to a tightening of the area's talent pool. The document cites the research of economists Jared Bernstein and Dean Baker of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which states that 4 percent unemployment is the point at which full employment is reached.

"Considering that Round Rock has been below that mark since November 2014, the alarm is worthy of being sounded," the document states.

The document states that to address the area's workforce needs, Round Rock will have to start "filling the 'occupational pipeline' now."

The document does not address funding, but states the chamber will identify dollar needs during the execution phase of the WROC.

Odom said the chamber will evaluate the length of time for each recommendation to come to fruition and help implement them based on that time length.