Alarmed with what corporate leaders say is a looming crisis, an initiative that pairs students with employers has set its sights on reaching an additional 300 businesses and 3,000 students this year.

Launched in November by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, The Pittsburgh Regional Compact is targeting top-growth areas such as life sciences, advanced manufacturing and information technology.

But the shortfall doesn't end there, and the plea for partnerships doesn't stop at the door of major corporations or senior high schools.

Tenth-grade might have been the old-school watermark for when guidance counselors began tracking career paths, leaders from the retail clothing, finance, health care and steel industries said yesterday . But that kind of mindset is as stale as last summer's clearance rack, said Susan McGalla, president and chief merchandising officer of American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.

"They think jobs aren't available here," she said, because "the young people and businesses aren't speaking to each other, and that's a communication issue."

David Malone, president and chief financial officer of Gateway Financial Group, said the generational disconnect is even more frustrating because there are more jobs in 10-county southwestern Pennsylvania than ever before.

"We have a perfect storm when it comes to workforce issues in this region," he said. "That's a crisis situation we want to meet head on -- where's the next generation of the workforce going to come from?"

A Carnegie Mellon University-Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board report calls it the "50/50 Problem" -- compared to seven peer regions such as Baltimore, Kansas City and Minneapolis, Pittsburgh has 50,000 more older workers (45 and over) and 50,000 fewer young ones.

James R. Lersch, North American recruiting director for United States Steel Corp., said his company's jobs aren't the backbreaking ones of a generation ago. Thirty to 40 percent of U.S. Steel's workforce here, totaling 5,000 employees, is nearing retirement, he said, and "we haven't done much to fill the pipeline."

Dawnita Wilson, a top UPMC recruiter, added that while everybody knows about the need for nurses, UPMC also can't find enough workers in skilled trades that have little to do with health care.

"We're looking for electricians, plumbers, those are kind of a dying trade now," she said, noting that 78 percent of the jobs in health care don't require a four-year degree.

"We see the high schools as really being the pipeline for the future of our organization," Ms. Wilson said.