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Employers in Local Area V had an estimated 3,812 job vacancies during the second quarter of 2008. This Local Area covers Southeast Kansas, including Crawford, Lyon, Miami and Montgomery counties. The average number of individuals unemployed in this area during this time was 7,293. This translates to an average of nearly two unemployed workers per job vacancy, indicating a labor market with a lesser demand for workers than the other Local Areas.
Sixty-seven percent of the openings were full-time, permanent positions. Furthermore, the results indicate Local Area V had the lowest job vacancy rate of all Local Areas at 3.1 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, by far, the largest number of job vacancies in the area with 1,305 openings. This was followed by Manufacturing with 636 openings and Leisure and Hospitality with 427 openings.
The Education and Health Services industry paid the highest average minimum wage offer of $12.61 an hour.
- Job Vacancies by Occupation
The Food Preparation and Serving-Related occupational group reported the largest number of job vacancies with 478 openings. The Transportation and Material Moving group had 461 openings.
The highest job vacancy rate was reported in the Healthcare Support group with a job vacancy rate of 7.1 and Healthcare Practitioners and Technical with a rate of 7.0 percent.
In terms of occupations, Truck Drivers, Heavy and Tractor-Trailer was the occupation with the largest number of vacancies with 381 openings. Registered Nurses followed with 370 openings; Nursing Aides, Orderlies and Attendants with 328 openings; Roofers with 179 openings and Waiters and Waitresses with 177 vacancies. These five occupations accounted for nearly 38 percent of all job openings in this Local Area.
- Job Vacancies by Employer Size
Employers who have five to 49 employees reported the largest number of vacancies in Local Area V with 1,658 openings or 43.5 percent of all job openings in the area.
- Education
More than 66 percent of the reported job openings in Local Area V required no education or only a high school diploma or GED, while approximately eight percent required a bachelor’s or advanced degree. This area recorded the lowest number of vacancies requiring advanced degrees.
Similar to Local Area I, Registered Nurses and Secondary School Teachers (Except Special and Vocational Education) had the first and second most job vacancies on the list of the top ten occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree in this Local Area. Of occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree, Registered Nurses had more job vacancies than any other occupation in the state. Four of the top ten occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree were healthcare-related and two were teaching-related.
In this Local Area, the average wage offered for openings requiring an associate’s degree was higher than with a bachelor’s degree, which does not follow the expected pattern. This may have been due to a few employers offering higher wages for certain jobs requiring only an associate’s degree, since wages offered with a bachelor’s degree appeared in line with statewide and other Local Areas.
- Starting Wage Offer
The average minimum wage offered for job vacancies in Local Area V was $10.45 per hour, the second lowest minimum wage offer of all local areas. Local Area IV had the lowest with $10.10 per hour. The average maximum wage offer was $12.22 per hour.
Approximately 27 percent of the job vacancies paid at least $12.00 per hour while 54 percent offered wages from $6.00 to $11.99 per hour.
Local Area V had the second largest percentage of job vacancies offering wages of less than $6.00 per hour at 14 percent.
Openings in Architecture and Engineering and Life, Physical and Social Science occupations paid the highest wages. Food Preparation and Serving-Related and Sales and Related occupations paid the lowest.
Overall, the Local Area V median minimum wage offer was $9.00 per hour, and the median maximum wage offer was $10.00.The median wage offer represents the value in the middle when all wage offers are arranged from lowest to highest.
- Duration of Job Vacancies
The survey showed that a majority of all of the job vacancies in this area had been open for less than 30 days. Additionally, this Local Area had the largest percent of these vacancies with 35 percent.
Several healthcare-related occupations were consistently on the list of the top ten occupations “always open.” In Local Area V, Registered Nurses and Nursing Aides were on this list. Other occupations that appear on the “always open” list in this Local Area were Waiters and Waitresses and Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers, which are on the “always open” list in most other Local Areas.
- Local Area V Tables
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