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Employers in Local Area II reported an estimated 8,013 job vacancies during the second quarter of 2008. This local area contains most of Northeast Kansas, including the counties of Shawnee, Riley, Geary, and Douglas. The average number of individuals unemployed in this area during this time was 12,008. This translates to an average of 1.5 unemployed workers per job vacancy, indicating a labor market with a high demand for workers.
Sixty-nine percent of these openings were full-time, permanent positions. Furthermore, the results indicate an estimated job vacancy rate of 3.3 percent or slightly more than three vacancies for every 100 filled positions.
- Job Vacancies by Industry
The Education and Health Services industry super sector reported the largest number of job vacancies with 2,023 openings. This was followed by Trade, Transportation and Utilities with 1,526 openings and Public Administration with 1,050 openings.
- Job Vacancies by Occupation
The occupational groups with the most job vacancies in this Local Area were Sales and Related Occupations with 1,404 openings and Office and Administrative Support Occupations with 1,136 openings.
Protective Services reported the highest job vacancy rate of 8.5 percent, and the Healthcare Practitioners and Technical group was the second highest with 6.7 percent.
In terms of occupations, Retail Salespersons had the largest number of vacancies in Local Area II with 674 openings. Other occupations with a large number of vacancies include Bookkeeping, Accounting and Auditing Clerks with 399 openings; Waiters and Waitresses with 373 openings; and both Personal Care and Service Workers, All Other and Cashiers with 361 openings each. Twenty-seven percent of the total vacancies in the area were represented in these top five occupations with the most job vacancies.
- Job Vacancies by Employer Size
Employers with five to 49 employees reported the largest number of vacancies in Local Area II with an estimated 2,938 openings.
- Education
More than 68 percent of the job openings in Local Area II required no education or only a high school diploma or GED, while approximately 12 percent of the job openings required a bachelor’s or advanced degree.
Registered Nurses were consistently among the top ten occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree in all of the Local Areas and had more job vacancies than any other occupation on the list. In Local Area II, four of the occupations on this list were teaching/education-related.
In Local Area II, wages for job vacancies, which require vocational training, a bachelor’s degree or an advanced degree, were higher than those reported statewide in the same categories.
The wages offered for positions requiring an advanced degree were higher in Local Area II than in any other area.
- Starting Wage Offer
The average minimum wage offered for job vacancies in Local Area II was $12.37 per hour, the highest of all the Local Areas. The average maximum wage offer was $13.96 per hour.
Forty percent of the job vacancies reported in Local Area II offered wages of $12.00 or more per hour, significantly more than any of the other Local Areas.
Forty-four percent offered wages ranging from $6.00 to $11.99, and only seven percent offered wages of less than $6.00 per hour.
Openings in Legal, Business and Financial Operations, and Healthcare Practitioners and Technical occupations paid the highest wages. Food Preparation and Serving-Related, Personal Care and Service, and Farming, Fishing and Forestry occupations paid the lowest.
Overall, the Local Area II median minimum wage offer was $10.00 per hour, and the median maximum wage offer was $12.00 per hour. The median wage offer represents the value in the middle when all wage offers are arranged from lowest to highest.
- Duration of Job Vacancies
Local Area II reported the smallest percent of job vacancies that were always open (17 percent). Unlike the other Local Areas in the state, the always open vacancies in Local Area II offered the highest wages. This may be due to a shortage of qualified workers in professional or high skilled fields with specialized education or training required, in which the average wage was higher.
Several healthcare-related occupations were consistently on the list of the top ten occupations “always open.” In Local Area II, Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses were on this list. Other occupations that were on this list in Local Area II were Retail Salespersons and Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers, which were on the “always open” list in most of the other Local Areas.
- Local Area II Tables
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