Laborshed
Workforce Statistics
Essentially, when everything else is stripped away, it is the people that are the key to a business’ success (Expansion Management, January 2003) and in nearly all site location studies, labor constitutes one of the most – if not the most – important criterion of the study (AreaDevelopment, April/May 2006). Profiling the characteristics of a community’s Laborshed reveals a very dynamic and diverse collection of skills, abilities, work experience and preferences among residents. It is important to analyze each grouping of respondents to identify and respect their uniqueness and contributions to the Laborshed. The employed individuals who are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to change jobs within their company, or accept a position with a different employer represent the primary pool of available labor. Many factors must be taken into account when evaluating these workers, such as employment experiences, unused skills, education, wages and benefits desired and the distance individuals are willing to travel to work. Current literature does not suggest standards by which to compare this Laborshed data, however, results from previous Laborshed studies conducted by Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) and the University of Northern Iowa’s Institute for Decision Making (IDM) form a base of comparison for the study.
DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE EMPLOYED
The gender break down of those respondents, who are employed, is 48.5 percent female and 51.5 percent male. The average age of the employed is 45 years old. A small portion (5.0%) of the employed respondents speaks more than one language in their household.
Employment Status
The results of this Laborshed survey show that 88.1 percent of all the respondents identified themselves as being employed at the time they were contacted (Chart 2). The majority (74.2%) of the employed are working in positions that are considered full-time (see Chart 3 on the next page ).
Over one-tenth (12.9%) of the employed respondents are self-employed. The types of businesses they are operating include construction/handyman (19.6%), consulting (15.2%), farming (10.9%), retail store (10.9%), restaurant (2.2%), or child care (2.2%). The self-employed have been operating their businesses for an average of 15 years, ranging from one to 37 years.
Education & Training
Nearly two-thirds (63.3%) of the employed residents in the Laborshed area have some level of education/training beyond high school, 3.4 percent are trade certified, 0.8 percent have completed vocational training, 10.9 percent have an associate degree, 35.0 percenthavean undergraduate degree, and 12.9 percent have a postgraduate/professional degree.
Table 2 provides an overview of the educational fields of study of those who are currently employed in the Laborshed area.
Occupations & Experiences
IWD recodes the respondents’ actual occupations into one of the seven Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) categories. The occupational categories represent a variety of specific occupations held by the respondents. (See OES Category Structure - Exhibit D.) Classifying the employed by occupational group, Table 3 shows that the largest concentration of the workforce are employed in the professional, paraprofessional, or technical occupational category. Agricultural occupations represent the smallest sector of workers who are currently employed. The totals are based on the Total Adjusted Labor Force estimates found in Table 1 and the percentage of employed in the Laborshed area.
Table 3.
Estimated Workforce by Occupation
Table 4 provides a comparison of the gender distribution within each occupational category.
Table 4.
Occupational Categories by Gender
Table 5, on the next page,illustrates the percentage of respondents within each occupational category by zone of residence. The table shows that occupational experiences are generally spread across the survey zones. Although Zone 1 is the primary node in the Laborshed area, the table illustrates the impact of the other zones on the extent of available labor. Within most of the occupational categories, the largest percentage of workers may often reside in outlying zones.
Table 5.
Occupational Categories Across the Zones
Wage Requirements
Respondents are surveyed on either an hourly or salaried basis; hourly wages are not converted to annual salaries. The Maquoketa Laborshed area has a higher concentration of respondents who are currently receiving an hourly wage (50.1%) versus those who are receiving an annual salary. The current median wage of those who are employed is $12.15 per hour and the median salary is $50,000 per year.
Table 6 provides the current median wages and salaries by industry of the respondents in the Laborshed area. This wage information is an overview of all employed within the Laborshed area without regard to occupational categories or willingness to change employment. If businesses are in need of wage rates within a defined Laborshed area, the survey data can be queried by various attributes to provide additional analysis of the available labor supply. The actual wage levels required by prospective workers will vary between individuals, occupational categories, industries, and economic cycles.
Table 6.
Median Wages & Salaries Industry
Table 7 illustrates current wage rates of those who are currently employed within each defined occupational category.
Table 7.
Median Wages & Salaries by Occupational Category
Wages by gender differ in the Maquoketa Laborshed area. The current median hourly wage of employed females in the Laborshed area is $11.00 per hour and the current median hourly wage of employed males is $16.50 per hour. This $5.50 per hour wage difference has females in the Maquoketa Laborshed area receiving an hourly wage of 33.3 percent less than males. Women who are receiving an annual salary also are faced with gender wage disparity ($17,000 per year). Currently women are making a median annual salary of $38,000 per year while men are making a median salary of $55,000 a year. This results in a 30.9 percent difference in annual salaries.
Employment Benefits
There is a variety of benefit packages being offered to employees within the Maquoketa Laborshed area in addition to wages. Current benefits include health/medical insurance (90.5%), pension/retirement options (73.7%), dental coverage (66.4%), paid vacation (64.6%), paid holidays (63.5%), paid sick leave (52.9%), vision coverage (48.9%), life insurance (38.0%), disability insurance (31.0%), prescription drug coverage (20.1%), tuition assistance/ reimbursement (17.9%), stock options (5.8%), and flextime (2.2%). Nearly four-fifths (78.9%) of the employers and employees in the Laborshed area are sharing in the premium costs of health/ medical insurance, 17.4 percent of the employers are covering the entire cost of insurance premiums while 3.7 percent of the employers/employees have made other arrangements.
Commuting
Commuting data collected by the Laborshed survey assists developers and employers in understanding how employed residents can/could commute within/out of the area. Overall, individuals are commuting an average of 13 miles one way for employment opportunities. Those who live in Zone 1 are commuting an average of 15 miles one way, while residents in Zone 2 are commuting an average of 15 miles one way, and Zone 3 residents are commuting an average of 9 miles one way for the right employment opportunity. Keep in mind that for those residing in Zones 2 and 3 commuting distances of less than 20 miles one way may or may not get them into the nodal community (Maquoketa).
Laborshed Analysis | Estimating the Total Labor Force Potential | Primary Industries of the Laborshed | Workforce Statistics | Analysis of Those Employed Willing to Change Employment | Willingness of Those Not Currently Employed to Accept Employment | Laborshed Maps and Exhibits | Labor Market Information (Employer-Based) Web Resources | References | Index of Charts and Tables