REBUILDING NEW YORK’S ECONOMY HIRING DISCONNECT Jobs are - TopicsExpress

REBUILDING NEW YORK’S ECONOMY HIRING DISCONNECT Jobs are out there, but skills often don’t match By Jessica Bakeman jbakeman@gannett ALBANY — There are more than 700,000 people out of work in New York, while there are at least 70,000 open jobs. If the state’s job seekers could fill those available po­sitions, the unemployment rate could be cut by almost 10 percent. As New York’s unemployment rate slowly declines, the state, employers and those out of work are dealing with a changing business landscape: finding employees to match the skills they need. There are currently 71,201 available jobs listed on the state Department of Labor website, with more than 25,000 of those in New York City. The number of jobs available on the site was up from June 2012. There are 8,230 open jobs in the Hudson Valley, 7,171 in western New York, 6,167 in the Finger Lakes and 3,329 in the Southern Tier. Tompkins County is considered in the South­ern Tier region. While not all the jobs available in the state are on the website, it offers the clearest picture of the state’s job market. Com­munity colleges and work force training programs said they’re working to update job seekers’ skills to attract employers in the state’s fastest­growing industries. “We have a strong group of companies here that struggle to find em­ployees. That’s an exam­ple of the skills gap, and we have been, for many years, trying to address it,” said Todd Oldham, vice president for eco­nomic development and innovative work force services at Monroe Com­munity College in Roch­ester. Regional employment experts said the state’s job seekers are missing key skills in computer science, manufacturing and technical trades, where qualified workers are in high demand. In many cases, it’s a certifi­cate or associate’s degree that stands between un­employment and a job. The Regional Econom­ic Development Council program started by Gov. Andrew Cuomo aims to put New Yorkers back to work, said Jennifer Krin­sky, labor department spokeswoman. In 2011, Cuomo appointed 10 councils around the state to generate ideas and propose projects to grow the economy on each region’s strengths. Krinsky also touted Cuomo’s new plan of cre­ating tax-free zones for businesses on college campuses. “Highly trained work­ers may not always be in the right place now, and that is what he is hoping to shift with this pro­gram,” she said in a state­ment. The Labor Depart­ment pointed to the work of the state’s 91 career centers. It said the cen­ters helped place 250,000 people in jobs last year. Colleges play a role Education — particu­larly, the K-12 system and community colleges — plays an important role in preparing the state’s work force, experts said. Oldham said MCC tracks employer demand in the Rochester area and enrolls students in the fastest-growing fields. Currently, the fields are welding, machining and optics for the Finger Lakes region. “We get calls from companies that are con­stantly looking to hire our graduates, and there are more calls coming in than we can produce gradu­ates,” he said. “That’s a great thing for our gradu­ates, but it’s indicative that the labor market wants more students than we’re producing.” At Hudson Valley Community College, in the Albany area, students who train to be electri­cians, and heating and air conditioning technicians receive multiple job of­fers upon graduation, said Phillip White, dean of the schools of business and engineering. “You’ve got to match up the skill sets with what the employers are look­ing for,” White said. The Business Council of Westchester is starting a clearinghouse this fall of local internship pro­grams available for col­lege students. The goal, organizers said, is to link students with local businesses and retain young people after they graduate. The Busi­ness Council also has a summer jobs program that has created 150 posi­tions. Flexibility key Terry Stark, executive director of the Broome-Tioga Workforce Devel­opment Board, said job seekers routinely come to her without the skills necessary for most jobs. “We still have large numbers of people who come into the career cen­ter who are not computer literate, who also lack a high school diploma or a GED,” she said. “And un­fortunately, that’s hold­ing back a large number of people from applying for jobs where that’s the entry criteria.” Stark said she has seen an unwillingness on the part of some unemployed people to update their skills. The center offers free computer courses, “but we don’t have lots of people that are applying for those jobs or asking about that kind of train­ing,” she said. Several job-training leaders said unemployed New Yorkers need to be more flexible in consider­ing new career paths. Job seekers shy away from jobs that offer less com­pensation than they’re used to, or have different demands on their bodies or their time. Stark said there are many job openings in transportation in her area, requiring a com­mercial driver’s license, but even those who com­plete the certification are wary of the travel re­quirements. Peter Pecor, executive director of Rochester-Works, a career center, said layoffs from Kodak have flooded the labor pool with workers who are accustomed to pay and benefits that might not be available in today’s job market. In the difficult econo­my, employers can be more selective, Pecor said, and newly laid-off workers are pickier, too. He said he has seen those attitudes change recent­ly. “I think there has been a loosening of that. Em­ployers are willing to take on new employees that are trainable,” he said. “On the other side, the job seekers, whose expectations may have been a little higher as far as the type of work they were doing, their income expectations,” are willing to compromise, too. New York’s unemploy­ment rate fell from 7.8 percent to 7.6 percent between April and May, the lowest level since February 2009 and on par with the national rate, the state Labor Department said. The state’s unem­ployment rate had out­paced the national rate. While technical or manufacturing fields are growing rapidly, the most job openings in almost ev­ery region are sales, cler­ical and health care jobs, according to the Labor Department’s listings. Educational institu­tions have a high number of openings, too, includ­ing for administrative po­sitions. Ithaca College and Cornell University have the most open jobs in the Southern Tier. Kent Gardner, an economist with the Cen­ter for Governmental Re­search, based in Roches­ter, said retail jobs, often low-paid, are always the most plentiful. “There tends to be high turnover,” he said. “People hire salesmen and put them on commis­sion, and if it doesn’t work out, they flush them. More often, people get discouraged. “And, again, retail is kind of tough,” he added. “You make minimum wage, and the job’s kind of boring.” Powered by TECNAVIA Copyright © 2013 The Ithaca Journal. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Rights , updated March 2007. 07/06/2013 newyork.us.jobs

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