Published: Friday, May. 29, 2009

Updated: Friday, May. 29, 2009

Survey: Jobs abound but in areas where workers are scarce

Despite the 10.7 percent unemployment rate and scores of companies still laying off workers, there are still plenty of jobs waiting for employees.

At least that’s the inference from Manpower’s Annual 10 Hardest Jobs to Fill Survey released Thursday that says there are high-paying jobs without qualified workers.

Engineers, nurses and skilled/manual trades head up the Top 10 list, not a surprise to employment experts who say there is a skill gap as well as a time gap involved.

“While talk has slowed in the U.S. about the pending talent shortage, it is becoming more clear that there is a talent disconnect,” said Melanie Holmes, vice president, world of work solutions for Manpower North America.

“There is a time gap and a skills gap,” said Kathy Baylis, executive director of the Sarasota Economic Development Council. “The laid-off mortgage brokers, construction workers and others don’t necessarily have the skills that are needed. And training takes time.”

Education is often the beginning point to start filling the skills gap, experts say.

High school and even middle school students need to be exposed to more technical jobs to widen their opportunities, said Peter Straw, executive director of the Sarasota Area Manufacturing Association. The association each year is involved in taking students on tours of manufacturing facilities, broadening their view of available careers.

Even if unemployed construction workers or others were to switch career paths right now, there would be a time gap before the workforce would see new engineers, nurses and teachers because of the training and education time needed, experts say.

“If you are not looking 10 years out on the education part, then you are behind,” Straw said. Schools have begun pushing career exposure in middle school to help student start on the right career path early, he said.

“Usually kids are clueless about what they need or want and by the time they find out, their path has already been set. Now they can select a major field of interest when they are coming out of middle school,” Straw said.

The Top 10 list released by Manpower nationally coincides with what local employers are looking for, according to Sally Hill with the Suncoast Workforce Board.

“The majority of job requests we are receiving from employers are in health care, professional finance and technical service which includes IT, engineers, research technology and administrative support, which is office and office administration,” she said.

Yet the people coming in for jobs are looking for mid-management positions in all industries, construction and office and administrative support such as bookkeeping and customer service.

The workforce board is trying to bridge the need versus want gap through skill assessments and trying to help people transfer their skills from one industry to another. For employers, it offers an employed worker training program using federal money to provide new skills to already employed workers which then opens up their former jobs for others, Hill said.

The skills gap is nothing new to Jennifer Schmidt, owner of Atlantic Mold and Machining Corp. in North Venice.

Her company employs machinists with highly technical skills in computers as well as manual skills. Finding someone with both is often hard, she says.

“The scope of the field over the last 20 years in this industry has changed. It has gone from a manual type of job to automation with computer aided machining skills,” Schmidt.

“The older people have the manual skills but often not the software, computer skills. The younger set has computer skills but not a strong background in manual application. You have to provide lots of training to bring them up to speed,” she said.

A skilled, experienced machinist can make from $60,000 to $80,000 a year.

Although the slow economy has slowed hiring somewhat, Schmidt said she is “always ready to hire the right people because those types of skills are so hard to find.”