With such low unemployment levels, human-resource departments at most companies have their hands full trying to find and hire staff members.
Statistics compiled by the Metropolitan Human Services Commission seem to suggest it’s not going to get easier anytime soon—especially in certain industries.
The commission spent a month compiling information about the area’s workforce, including its changing composition and projected growth, its fastest-growing occupations and their wages, its new job openings and a cross-county comparison.
Among the statistics:
- Between 1994 and 2005, the study area, which includes Franklin, Delaware, Fairfield, Licking, Madison, Pickaway and Union counties, will add more than 162,000 jobs.
- 55 percent of the area’s openings replace workers who leave existing jobs; 45 percent are newly created jobs.
- 32 percent of the new jobs to be created between 1994 and 2005 do not provide a wage adequate to sustain a family of four above the poverty level.
The commission is now focusing on a study of the area’s changing workplace, including its implications to policymakers and its relation to other issues, including telecommuting, business development and technology. The results of that study are expected this fall.
