Thursday, December 6, 2012

Five Sectors of the Country with Strong Labor Markets

The demand is for blue-collar workers, though, not what college grads are looking for.

If you are a college grad and want to make it out of menial labor, you are going to have to do it on your own, especially if you don't have a degree in a technical subject, such as engineering or accounting.

1. North Dakota


In the booming oil country around Minot, N.D., for example, Menards, a home improvement chain, is having trouble filling jobs. Its solution is to fly 50 workers in weekly from its headquarters in Wisconsin, then house the staffers in hotels.

Stephen Bronars, chief economist with Welch Consulting, said the biggest labor shortages, by far, are in North Dakota.

Bismarck's unemployment rate is 2.2 percent, the lowest in the country among metropolitan areas, and Minot's unemployment rate is also low at 2.4 percent. But what may be the lowest rate in the state is the 0.7 percent unemployment rate in Williston, N.D., which is the midst of an energy boom.

"Employment is also growing at retailers, hotels, restaurants and in other industries as well," Bronars said.

2. Tampa, Florida

Partly because of the housing recovery, home builders in Tampa, Fla., are reporting a shortage of construction workers. Many workers left the region after the economic crisis of 2008. Now, with new home construction on the rise, contractors are in need of able bodies, and a delay in construction could, at the worst, delay the region's economic recovery, the Tampa Tribune reported.

3. State of Washington

Washington state apple and asparagus farmers both reported a shortage of workers this year, reflecting a nationwide lack of farmhands. Back in the summer, when the asparagus harvest was completed, Bryan Lynch, co-owner of LF Farms in Washington, said his yield was lower than usual because of fewer workers to harvest the crop, the Tri-City Herald reported.

4. New Orleans. Louisiana

"Each day we have more equipment and more labor because our contractors are having to recruit from out of state," Michelle Thomas, New Orleans' deputy mayor of operations, said, the Times-Picayune reported.

5. Overall Factory Worker Shortage


In the next 10 years, the shortage of highly skilled workers could increase to 875,000 to from 80,000 to 100,000 workers now, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

While the U.S. may create as many as 5 million manufacturing and supporting jobs by 2020, factory workers are beginning to age and retire, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Via ABC News.



1 comment:

  1. Despite the almost yearly claims by many cheap labor lovers like the farming industry, it's amazing how those fruit and vegetables still manage to get picked. If only we had more non-citizen labor to do those jobs Americans just won't do. /sarc

    ReplyDelete