Thumb area q4 2015 report optimizedfinal

WORKFORCE INTELLIGENCE NETWORK

QUARTERLY REPORT 路 THUMB AREA Q4 2015 & 2015 Annual Summary

CONTENTS Executive Summary Labor Market and Job Demand Overview Occupational Clusters Advanced Manufacturing: Skilled Trades & Technicians Advanced Manufacturing: Engineers & Designers Health Care Retail & Hospitality Transportation, Distribution, & Logistics Agriculture

Data Notes and Sources

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GEOGRAPHY

Prosperity Region 6 includes 7 counties: Genesee, Huron, Lapeer, Sanilac, Saint Clair, Shiawassee, and Tuscola. This report focuses on the 4-county Thumb area (Huron, Lapeer, Sanilac, and Tuscola).

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SECTION ONE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Online job ads for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (136 postings) and registered nurses (135 postings) dominated the top jobs list for the Thumb Area in Q4 2015 (pg. 7).

Employer demand for truck drivers rose 63% during 2015 (from 50 postings in Q1) and job ads for registered nurses increased 70% over the course of the year (up from 40 in Q1).

The trend of increased employer demand over time in the Thumb Area has helped to increase employment (pg. 9-11).

Employment in the region ebbs and flows in a business cycle pattern, but the general trend has been growth over time. Coupled with a stagnant labor force, employment growth had pushed the Thumb Area’s unemployment rate down to 5.2% by November 2015.

Q4 2015 postings for the Skilled Trades & Technicians occupation, computercontrolled machine tool operators showed a dramatic decrease from the beginning of the year (pg. 16).

This occupation was Q1 2015’s most in-demand Skilled Trades job with 18 postings, but had only 2 in Q4. Hopefully this drastic decline means that jobs were successfully filled.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Employment in the Thumb Area’s Skilled Trades & Technicians cluster is still fighting to recover from the recession (pg. 18).

At the low point in 2009, employment in the cluster reached 3,636 but saw a swift recovery growing 28% to 5,042 employees in 2012. The following year, however, the cluster lost 843 of those new employees and has been adding between 50 and 100 jobs each year since then.

Heavy and tractor-trailer trucker drivers (136 postings) are becoming one of the most in-demand occupations in southeast Michigan, especially in the 4-county Thumb Area (pg. 48).

The occupation topped the list of Transportation, Distribution, & Logistics (TDL) occupations again during Q4 2015 and accounts for 76% of cluster postings.

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SECTION TWO LABOR MARKET AND DEMAND OVERVIEW

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TOP 20 JOBS IN DEMAND OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2015

* Data : Burning Glass Technologies

The top in-demand jobs in the 4-county Thumb Area during Q4 2015 were heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (136 postings) and registered nurses (135 postings). These occupations top the list throughout southeast Michigan and are routinely in high demand in the Thumb Area. The interesting note about employer demand for these two occupations is that postings for truck drivers rose 63% during 2015 (from 50 postings in Q1) and job ads for registered nurses increased 70% over the course of the year (up from 40 in Q1).

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EMPLOYER DEMAND OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2015

Employer demand in the Thumb Area was down 3% in Q4 2015 compared to Q3, when regional employers posted 1,219 online job ads. Posting changes were small throughout the year with quarterly posting totals falling around the year’s quarterly posting average of 1,153. Online job advertisement data is volatile in this 4-county region, although the general trend indicates growing job demand. Postings hit an analysis-period high a year ago, in Q4 2014, at 1,551 postings.

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EMPLOYMENT AND LABOR FORCE

The trend of increased employer demand over time in the Thumb Area has helped to increase employment. Employment in the region ebbs and flows in a business cycle pattern, but the general trend has been growth over time. The Thumb Area labor force also follows a cyclical pattern but growth has remained stagnant over the past few years. While employment grows and the labor force remains unchanged, the unemployment rate for the 4-county Thumb Area continues to drop.

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EMPLOYMENT AND LABOR FORCE OVERVIEW

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EMPLOYMENT AND LABOR FORCE OVERVIEW Estimates for November 2015 indicate that 95,178 people were employed in southeast Michigan’s Thumb Region. With an available labor force of 100,368, that means that the region’s unemployment rate is an estimated 5.2%, down 3.6 percentage points from January 2015. The labor force declined 1.4% between Q3 and Q4 2015 while employment had a negligible decrease. Annual data illustrate the trends discussed previously: employment grew 2.2% in 2015 compared to 2014 while the labor force registered a 0.2% decrease, meaning that the drop in the unemployment rate seen for the Thumb Area can be mostly attributed to local individuals gaining jobs.

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SECTION THREE OCCUPATIONAL CLUSTERS

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THUMB AREA 4-COUNTY DEMAND OVERVIEW

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS WIN’s technicians/skilled trades category includes jobs related to advanced manufacturing. Southeast Michigan has more demand for skilled- trades labor, such as CNC machinists and welders, than almost anywhere else in the country. In 2015, skilled trades employment reached 4,353 individuals in the 4-county Thumb area.

NOTE: Skilled trades related to construction and repair are not included in this cluster, as the focus is on advanced manufacturing.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS: TOP JOBS

* Data : Burning Glass Technologies Production workers were the most in-demand Skilled Trades & Technicians cluster occupation during Q4 2015, with 17 online job ads posted for these workers. The top jobs list in this cluster remained mostly the same throughout 2015, though computer-controlled machine tool operators, which started 2015 as the most in-demand Skilled Trades occupation with 18 postings, saw postings decrease to a total of 2 during Q4. Hopefully this drastic decline means that the jobs were successfully filled.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS: ONLINE JOB POSTINGS OVER TIME

Employer demand, measured by online job postings, decreased slightly between quarters in the Thumb Area’s Skilled Trades & Technicians cluster. Area employers posted 89 online job ads for workers in this cluster during Q2 and Q3, but posted 17 fewer, or 19% less, for a total of 72 postings, during Q4 2015. Employer demand for the Skilled Trades & Technicians cluster seems to be less volatile than it was during the early years of the analysis period beginning in 2011. The Skilled Trades & Technicians cluster accounted for 6.1% of the total online job postings in the Thumb Area seen in Q4 2015.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS: EMPLOYMENT OVER TIME

Employment in the Thumb Area’s Skilled Trades & Technicians cluster is still fighting to recover from the recession. At the low point in 2009, employment in the cluster reached 3,636 but saw a swift recovery growing 28% to 5,042 employees in 2012. The following year, however, the cluster lost 843 of those new employees and has been adding between 50 and 100 jobs each year since then. Estimates for 2015 show that 4,353 people were employed in Skilled Trades & Technicians positions in the 4county Thumb Area.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS: TOP 15 JOBS WAGES

Skilled Trades & Technician occupations offer competitive wages to Thumb Area workers and residents after some years of experience on the job. Twelve of the top 15 in-demand occupations in this cluster offer median hourly earnings above the $15 per hour living wage benchmark. Entry-level positions as first-line supervisors of production and operating workers could pay over $17 per hour and qualified computer-numerically controlled machine tool programmers are offered over $16 per hour at entry-level (10th percentile). Wages for the skilled trades in southeast Michigan are modestly higher than the U.S. on average.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS: TOP 15 JOBS LOCATION QUOTIENT

Network

The location quotient (LQ) is a measure of relative concentration. In this case, it measures the relative concentration of workers in an occupation in a specific geography compared to the U.S. on average. Higher LQs typically indicate that employers will have an easier time finding talent because those workers are more concentrated in the area; lower LQs will make filling open positions more difficult. For example, machinists have a LQ of 2.39 indicating that these workers are 2.39 times, or 139% more, concentrated in southeast Michigan than across the rest of the country. Employers in the region should have a relatively easy time recruiting those workers. On the other hand, chemical equipment operators and tenders (LQ = 0.65) are concentrated in the region at only 65% of the national average, which may make it harder for Thumb Area employers to hire for open positions.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS: TOP 15 JOBS RECENT REGIONAL GRADUATES

Most Skilled Trades cluster occupations in-demand in the Thumb Area will not require much education or training beyond a high school diploma but do require extensive on-the-job training. That being said, program completions data for 2014 show that southeast Michigan students graduated from degree and certificate programs related to many of the most in-demand Skilled Trades jobs in the Thumb Area. Even in occupations that are more likely require postsecondary education, such as an associate’s degree expected of a civil engineering technician, Thumb Area employers could potentially find 88 qualified candidates to fill the one technician position that was posted during Q4 2015. But, they would be competing with other employers in the broader southeast Michigan region for those 88 graduates.

Due to the regional nature of the labor force in Southeast Michigan data is shown for degree and certificate completions awarded by colleges and universities from all 16-counties in the WIN partnership.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS: TOP 15 JOBS EDUCATION & TRAINING REQUIREMENTS

While 13 of the top 15 in-demand Skilled Trades & Technicians occupations in southeast Michigan’s Thumb Area do not require advanced education or training beyond a high school diploma in reality employers prefer candidates with experience or specialized training in these fields. Skilled Trades occupations will also require moderate to long-term training. Technician occupations typically require an associate’s degree and supervisors need a post-secondary award. As a result of the higher necessary education, these occupations typically lead the Skilled Trades in wages offered.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS Jobs in the manufacturing industry can range from assembly and production, to skilled trades and technicians, designers and engineers, and even computer-related occupations such as software development. This section focuses on engineers & designers, which represent 874 employed individuals in the 4-county Thumb area during 2015. Demand for engineers in the region has been consistent, and employment has been growing quickly.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS : TOP JOBS

* Data : Burning Glass Technologies Employer demand in the Engineering & Design occupational cluster is small for the 4-county Thumb Area. The few online job ads posted in this cluster make it difficult to track trends in top jobs. During Q4 2015 mechanical engineers and manufacturing engineers both garnered 6 online job ads. Thumb Area employers also posted 4 job ads each for drafters and industrial engineers.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS : ONLINE JOB POSTINGS OVER TIME

Throughout the 4-county Thumb Area, advanced manufacturing employers only posted 26 online job ads for Engineering & Design occupations during Q4 2015. This level of postings is a 33% drop from the 39 ads posted during Q3. Q2 2015 was a high point for employer demand with 45 postings, but still half as many ads as were posted during Q1 2011. Employer demand has decreased overall throughout the analysis period. The Engineering & Design occupation cluster accounted for 2.2% of total online job postings in the Thumb Area during Q4 2015.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS: EMPLOYMENT OVER TIME

Employment in the Engineering & Design occupations, similar to the Skilled Trades & Technicians cluster, faltered in its recovery from the recession. Employment in the cluster bottomed out at 719 in 2009 and the 874 Thumb Area workers employed in the cluster during 2015 does not compare to the 1,156 employees the area had in 2001. 282 more individuals must be hired (32% increase) in order to reach 2001 peak employment. The general decrease in employer demand has likely slowed employment growth; employment numbers have not grown much beyond 850 employees since 2013.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS : TOP JOBS WAGES

Engineering & Design occupations are high-paying jobs. Although employer demand for engineers is low in the Thumb Area, the few workers employed as engineers earn high wages. All of the most in-demand Engineering & Design occupations during Q4 offer entry-level (10th percentile) wages above the living wage standard of $15 per hour, with opportunities for wage growth with experience.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS : TOP JOBS LOCATION QUOTIENT

The location quotient (LQ) is a measure of relative concentration. In this case, it measures the relative concentration of workers in an occupation in a specific geography compared to the U.S. on average.

Higher LQs typically indicate that employers will have an easier time finding talent because those workers are more concentrated in the area; lower LQs will make filling open positions more difficult. For example, manufacturing engineers have a LQ of 2.93 indicating that these workers are 2.93 times more concentrated in southeast Michigan than the national average. Drafters (LQ = 0.75), on the other hand, have a presence in the region just 75% of the national average, so Thumb Area employers may have a relatively more difficult time hiring these workers.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS : TOP JOBS RECENT REGIONAL GRADUATES

Most Engineering & Design occupations require postsecondary educational attainment of applicants. Due to the regional nature of the labor force in southeast Michigan data is shown for degree and certificate completions awarded by colleges and universities from all 16-counties in the WIN partnership. Program completions data from 2014 show that hundreds of southeast Michigan students graduated from programs related to high demand engineering jobs. Thumb Area employers offering competitive wages have many qualified regional workers to choose from when recruiting for Engineering & Design occupations.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS : TOP JOBS EDUCATION & TRAINING REQUIREMENTS

Engineering & Design occupations typically require at least a bachelor’s degree of their candidates for entry-level employment.

Civil engineers seeking entry-level employment may be able to obtain a position with an associate’s degree but generally engineers are expected to hold bachelor’s degrees. The incentives for postsecondary education attainment in this cluster are the high wages offered to workers.

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HEALTH CARE WIN’s health care occupation cluster includes jobs related to health care support and practitioners. This cluster is one of Southeast Michigan’s largest with, 5,344 employees in 2015 in the 4-county Thumb area. Employment in this cluster has been consistently growing, more health care workers needed to care for Michigan’s aging population and in response to regulatory and other changes.

Registered nurses are routinely the most in-demand job in this cluster.

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HEALTH CARE TOP JOBS

* Data : Burning Glass Technologies Registered nurses top the list of in-demand Health Care occupations in the Thumb Area, much like across the rest of southeast Michigan. Demand for nurses is on the rise and postings for these workers far outpace the next most in-demand Health Care jobs. Thumb Area employers posted 135 online job ads for RNs during Q4 2015, 84% more than the 21 job ads for nursing assistants.

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HEALTH CARE ONLINE JOB POSTINGS OVER TIME

With the continued growth in demand for registered nurses employer demand overall in the Health Care cluster is on the rise. Employers in the Thumb Area posted 274 job postings for Health Care workers during Q4 2015, up 23% from the 212 postings seen during Q3. Growing demand has the potential to drive a growth in employment for Health Care workers in southeast Michigan’s Thumb Area. Demand for the Health Care occupations contributed 23.1% of the total job ads posted in the Thumb Area during Q4 2015.

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HEALTH CARE EMPLOYMENT OVER TIME

The incredible demand for Health Care workers, especially registered nurses, has helped spur employment growth in the cluster. Employment in the 4-county Thumb Area was estimated to be up to 5,344 in 2015 and will likely continue to grow into 2016. Health Care cluster employment since 2001 has remained above 5,000, the lowest employment being 5,042 employees in 2011. 2015 employment numbers are comparable to the peak of Health Care employment at 5,318 in 2005.

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HEALTH CARE TOP JOBS WAGES

Many Health Care occupations offer good wages, even for entry-level work. Registered nurses are some of the most in-demand workers in the region and the state and could be making up to $24.99 per hour at entry-level (10th percentile). Median hourly earnings for 11 of the top Health Care jobs in the Thumb Area offer median wages over a $15 per hour “living wage� standard.

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HEALTH CARE TOP JOBS LOCATION QUOTIENT

The location quotient (LQ) is a measure of relative concentration. In this case, it measures the relative concentration of workers in an occupation in a specific geography compared to the U.S. on average.

Higher LQs typically indicate that employers will have an easier time finding talent because those workers are more concentrated in the area; lower LQs will make filling open positions more difficult.

The LQ for registered nurse (LQ = 1.18) indicates that the concentration of workers in southeast Michigan is 18% higher than throughout the nation on average, implying that employers should have a relatively easy time recruiting nurses. This indicator, however, does not speak to the increased demand seen for nurses throughout the past years.

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HEALTH CARE TOP JOBS RECENT REGIONAL GRADUATES

Education and training requirements vary for the Thumb Area’s high demand Health Care occupations, from a postsecondary certificate to a doctorate degree. Due to the regional nature of the labor force in southeast Michigan data is shown for degree and certificate completions awarded by colleges and universities from all 16-counties in the WIN partnership. Completions data from 2014 show that hundreds of students in southeast Michigan graduated from programs related to the top Health Care careers, including registered nurses. The sustained high levels of employer demand for RNs may indicate a mismatch between training programs and employer needs, or may indicate a problem with recruiting nursing students to actually pursue work in nursing.

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HEALTH CARE TOP JOBS EDUCATION & TRAINING REQUIREMENTS

The most in-demand Health Care occupation in southeast Michigan by far, registered nurse, is attainable with a two-year associate’s degree but most hospital systems want nurses with a four-year degree. Many other Health Care occupations offer options for students and workers seeking to complete a postsecondary certificate program. High wage Health Care occupations include those like physician, psychiatrist, and occupational therapist.

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RETAIL AND HOSPITALITY The retail and hospitality cluster is the largest occupational cluster that WIN analyzes, both in terms of employment and online job postings. This cluster is of very high importance to the region because it is the first to grow when the economy expands and the first to contract in a downturn: It is often a leading indicator. As defined by WIN, the retail and hospitality cluster encompasses all customer service occupations, with skills transferrable across the retail sector, the hotel industry, food and beverage service industry, call centers, and other areas. In 2015, 22,971 individuals were employed in retail and hospitality related occupations in the 4county Thumb area.

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RETAIL & HOSPITALITY TOP JOBS

* Data : Burning Glass Technologies First-line supervisors of retail sales workers (37 postings), customer service representatives (36 postings), and retail salespersons (30 postings) routinely top the list of in-demand Retail & Hospitality jobs in southeast Michigan’s Thumb Area but may shuffle rankings. Postings for retail sales workers were down from 65 in Q3 even in the midst of the holiday hiring period.

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RETAIL & HOSPITALITY ONLINE JOB POSTINGS OVER TIME

Employers in the 4-county Thumb Area posted 248 online job ads for Retail & Hospitality workers during Q4 2015. Although postings were down between quarters for occupations like retail sales workers, the overall increase in demand is consistent with the typical business cycle for this cluster. Postings tend to spike in the fourth quarter when retailers are hiring full-time and temporary employees for the holiday season. The Retail & Hospitality cluster accounted for 20.9% of all online job ads posted in the Thumb Area during Q4 2015.

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RETAIL & HOSPITALITY EMPLOYMENT OVER TIME

Employment in the Thumb Area’s Retail & Hospitality occupations increased a small 1% in 2015 compared to 2014. 22,971 workers in the 4 counties were employed in the cluster during 2015.

Employment has still not fully recovered from the recession; pre-recession employment was above 25,000 employees.

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RETAIL & HOSPITALITY TOP JOBS WAGES

The Retail & Hospitality cluster offers several opportunities for high wages to workers in southeast Michigan’s Thumb Area. Six of the top 15 in-demand occupations during Q4 2015 offer median hourly earnings above a $15 per hour living wage with upward wage growth commensurate to experience. Management roles like first-line supervisors of retail sales workers and food service managers are among the highest paying positions within the cluster.

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RETAIL & HOSPITALITY TOP JOBS LOCATION QUOTIENT

The location quotient (LQ) is a measure of relative concentration. In this case, it measures the relative concentration of workers in an occupation in a specific geography compared to the U.S. on average.

Higher LQs typically indicate that employers will have an easier time finding talent because those workers are more concentrated in the area; lower LQs will make filling open positions more difficult. For example, non-scientific wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives have a LQ of 1.19 indicating that the concentration of this type of worker in the region is 19% higher than in the rest of the US. Many other high demand Retail & Hospitality workers are concentrated in the region at least at 80% of the national average.

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RETAIL & HOSPITALITY TOP JOBS RECENT REGIONAL GRADUATES

Most Retail & Hospitality cluster jobs do not require education or training beyond a high school diploma for entry-level work. Regional completions data show that 2014 graduates completed degree and certificate programs that could prepare them for many of the in-demand Retail & Hospitality occupations in the Thumb Area, especially because many degrees can prepare a person for multiple jobs.

Due to the regional nature of the labor force in Southeast Michigan data is shown for degree and certificate completions awarded by colleges and universities from all 16-counties in the WIN partnership.

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RETAIL & HOSPITALITY TOP JOBS EDUCATION & TRAINING REQUIREMENTS

As discussed on the previous page, most entry-level positions in the Retail & Hospitality cluster do not require educational attainment beyond a high school diploma. Some employers may like to see prior work experience when recruiting for certain occupations, though the cluster’s occupations tend to be good positions for workers just entering the job market. Higher paying and management positions with the Retail & Hospitality cluster are those positions more likely to require a bachelor’s degree.

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TRANSPORTATION DISTRIBUTION AND LOGISTICS Transportation, distribution, and logistics (TDL) workers help move materials in an efficient manner whether it is from one company to another or directly to a consumer. Logistics workers range from materials movers to logisitics analysts, coordinating and analyzing material and goods movement. With I-69 cooridor running straight through Region 7, TDL jobs are important to watch. In 2015, 8,201 workers were employed in the 4-county Thumb area in TDL occupations.

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TDL TOP JOBS

* Data : Burning Glass Technologies Heavy and tractor-trailer trucker drivers (136 postings) are becoming one of the most in-demand occupations in southeast Michigan, especially in the 4-county Thumb Area. The occupation topped the list of Transportation, Distribution, & Logistics (TDL) occupations again during Q4 2015 and accounts for 76% of cluster postings. Employer demand for truck drivers far outpaces demand for the next top job, freight, stock, and material movers (30 postings). The remainder of the top TDL jobs list is comprised of small numbers of postings for workers from industrial truck and tractor operators to logisticians.

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TDL ONLINE JOB POSTINGS OVER TIME

Thumb Area employers posted 180 online job ads for TDL occupations, most truck drivers, during Q4 2015.

This level of postings is 38% higher than the 112 TDL job ads posted during Q3. Employer demand in this occupation cluster is still small relative to other clusters, and thus more volatile, but the trend is toward increased demand that has the potential to expand employment. Demand for TDL occupations accounted for 15.2% of Q4 2015 online job ads posted in the Thumb Area.

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TDL EMPLOYMENT OVER TIME

The Thumb Area gained over 200 TDL employees in 2015. During 2015, 8,201 workers were employed in TDL occupations, an almost 3% increase in employment from the previous year. Employment in TDL occupations bottomed out at 7,342 in 2009 and has grown almost every year since. Rapidly increasing employer demand for TDL workers, especially truck drivers, will continue to drive employment growth in 2016.

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TDL TOP JOBS WAGES

Although “truck driver” may not seem like a desirable career choice, TDL occupations offer competitive wages for regional workers. Half of the top in-demand TDL jobs during Q4 2015 offer median hourly earnings above the $15 per hour “living wage” standard. The highest paying positions within this cluster are in management, including first-line supervisors of helpers, laborers, and material movers, and in logistics.

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TDL TOP JOBS LOCATION QUOTIENT

The location quotient (LQ) is a measure of relative concentration. In this case, it measures the relative concentration of workers in an occupation in a specific geography compared to the U.S. on average. Higher LQs typically indicate that employers will have an easier time finding talent because those workers are more concentrated in the area; lower LQs will make filling open positions more difficult. For example, logistics analysts have a LQ of 2.10, meaning that this type of worker is 2.10 times, or 110% more, concentrated in southeast Michigan than throughout the rest of the nation. Thumb Area employers looking to add a logistics analyst to their payrolls should have a relatively easy time finding that type of worker.

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TDL TOP JOBS RECENT REGIONAL GRADUATES

Many TDL occupations do not require education beyond a high school diploma but employers may be interested in other training and certificate programs a candidate may have completed. Program completions data from 2014 show that hundreds of southeast Michigan students graduated from programs that could prepare them for a career in a TDL occupation. Only 29 workers completed a driving training program that would be beneficial in a job as a truck driver or a bus driver. With truck drivers being one of the highest demand occupations in the region, this few program completions indicates that there are nowhere near the number of qualified candidates needed to fill open positions.

Due to the regional nature of the labor force in southeast Michigan data is shown for degree and certificate completions awarded by colleges and universities from all 16-counties in the WIN partnership.

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TDL TOP JOBS EDUCATION & TRAINING REQUIREMENTS

Most of the TDL cluster occupations do no require more than a high school diploma for entry-level work in driving or distribution, but employers may value other training or certifications. High paying logistics positions like logisticians and logistics analysts are those more likely to require at least a bachelor’s degree of applicants.

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AGRICULTURE WIN’s agriculture cluster brings together occupations that require knowledge of the farming, livestock, the environment, and natural sciences. Occupations range from farm workers, to environmental engineers, to meat butchers, and recreation workers. In 2015, 4,850 individuals were employed in the agriculture cluster in the 4-county Thumb area.

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AGRICULTURE TOP JOBS

* Data : Burning Glass Technologies The low number of online job ads posted in the Agriculture occupation cluster makes it difficult to track trends in top jobs over time. Thumb Area employers posted 6 online job ads for recreation workers during Q4 2015, making it the most in-demand Agriculture job in the region. Agriculture is also a cluster that may rely on recruiting and hiring methods outside of online job postings, and data presented here may only reflect a fraction of the hiring done for this cluster.

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AGRICULTURE ONLINE JOB POSTINGS OVER TIME

Thumb Area employers posted a total of 17 online job ads for Agriculture occupations during Q4 2015, down from 26 in Q3. Employer demand in Agriculture cycles based on the season, with postings typically decreasing during the fourth quarter heading into winter. Q1 2016 postings, then, can be expected to mark an increase in employer demand. Demand for Agriculture occupations accounted for 1.4% of Thumb Area job ads during Q4 2015.

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AGRICULTURE EMPLOYMENT OVER TIME

Employment in the Agriculture cluster has remained fairly stagnant over the past 15 years in the Thumb Area – the cluster has gained approximately 1,200 employees during this period. During 2015, 4,850 Thumb Area workers were employed in Agriculture occupations.

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AGRICULTURE TOP JOBS WAGES

Wages in the Agriculture occupational cluster vary widely based on the educational background of the worker. Scientific workers or engineering workers like natural sciences managers are the highest paid in the cluster with median hourly earnings of almost $50 per hour. Other occupations in the cluster offer living wages over $15 per hour, including farm & ranch managers and fallers.

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AGRICULTURE TOP JOBS LOCATION QUOTIENT

The location quotient (LQ) is a measure of relative concentration. In this case, it measures the relative concentration of workers in an occupation in a specific geography compared to the U.S. on average.

Higher LQs typically indicate that employers will have an easier time finding talent because those workers are more concentrated in the area; lower LQs will make filling open positions more difficult.

Occupational health and safety specialists have a LQ of 0.54 indicating that this type of worker is concentrated in southeast Michigan at only 54% of the national average and regional employers may have a relatively difficult time in hiring them.

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AGRICULTURE TOP JOBS RECENT REGIONAL GRADUATES

Education and training requirements for occupations in the Agriculture cluster vary. Because many degree programs can prepare a person for multiple jobs, completions data from 2014 show that 3,280 southeast Michigan students graduated from a program that prepared them to work as natural sciences managers, although most will likely not pursue that career choice.

Due to the regional nature of the labor force in southeast Michigan data is shown for degree and certificate completions awarded by colleges and universities from all 16-counties in the WIN partnership.

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AGRICULTURE TOP JOBS EDUCATION & TRAINING REQUIREMENTS

The scientific and engineering occupations in the Agriculture cluster offer high wages and are the jobs most likely to require postsecondary degrees of applicants. Natural sciences managers and occupational health and safety specialists, as examples, require at least a bachelor’s degree. Manual labor occupations within the cluster, like farm and ranch managers or landscaping and groundskeeping workers, do not require more than a high school diploma but may require some prior experience and training.

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SECTION FOUR DATA NOTES AND SOURCES

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DATA NOTES AND SOURCES SPECIAL DATA NOTE • Due to changes in Burning Glass’s aggregation, parsing, and deduplication methods implemented in December 2014, data from previously released reports should not be compared to data in reports starting in Q4 2014 and moving forward. For the Q4 2014 report, the WIN team re-gathered and analyzed all of the data (postings from 2011 through 2014) to ensure that all numbers are up-to-date. If you would like information on the differences between the updated data and data from previous reports, please contact WIN's Research Director Colby Spencer Cesaro at colby.cesaro@win-semich.org.

• Wage, location quotient, completion, and education requirement data is shown for the 16 county region that is part of the WIN partnership.

• All numbers included in this report are the correct and updated data.

• Wage and educational attainment data available varies depending on the occupation. All wage and educational attainment data provided is for the 6digit SOC code. Some 6-digit codes do not have education or wage data available, in this case we leave the information blank.

• Educational attainment data available refers to the share of the current workforce in each bracket, not what is shown in postings. Employers may require different educational attainment than what is in this report.

• Quarterly reports: Due to a data update in Burning Glass Technologies’ Labor Insight tool, comparisons should not be made between data from each quarterly report and the annual review data should not be compared to data from previous quarterly reports.

• Adjustments to the labor force information were also made to reflect and incorporate updated inputs, re-estimation, and controlling to new statewide totals. Much of the information related to monthly and quarterly employment is updated several months after the initial release. More information can be found here: http://www.bls.gov/lau/launews1. htm • This report uses $15 as a "living wage" estimate. Any job paying more than this is considered to pay at least a living wage. Below $15 is less than a living wage.

This definition is based on a median household income in Michigan which is close to $50,000 per year. If we assume that most homes have two income earners and both earn at least $15 per hour, then that household's anual income would be at least $62,000 putting these jobs above the median.

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DATA NOTES AND SOURCES UNDERSTANDING DEMAND VS EMPLOYMENT • Employment refers to actual employment numbers—the number of people in jobs—in targeted industries or occupations.

• Demand refers to statistics derived from employer job postings, which indicate the potential for employment but may or may not materialize into actual jobs.

• Job posting-related demand, as presented in this report, is measured by online job postings. Employer demand may be larger than what is highlighted in this report if employers find talent by other means.

DATA SOURCES • Labor market demand data for this report was compiled using Burning Glass Technologies’ Labor Insight Tool, and analyzed by the Workforce Intelligence Network. Other data sources include, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. (EMSI). Check out our website http://www.winsemich.org for more data and detailed information about our sources.

UNDERSTANDING CLUSTERS • Rather than focusing on talent demand within industries (types of firms), WIN generally emphasizes exploring talent demand based on occupations, including the skills, educational credentials, and experience needed to work in them.

• WIN research examines industry data, as the health of companies can be useful for economic development purposes. However, shifting focus from industry to occupation is important as different types of occupations with extremely different skillsets may work within and across industries. For example, accountants, computer specialists, and engineers all may work in the manufacturing industry.

• By clustering occupations, the talent system can identify employer demand for particular skillsets across multiple industry types and develop a response through training and pipeline development to meet that demand.

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BOARD ORGANIZATIONS

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT RESEARCH AND DATA, VISIT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.WIN-SEMICH.ORG/DATA-RESEARCH