Oakland q4 2014 report final

WORKFORCE INTELLIGENCE NETWORK QUARTERLY REPORT 路 OAKLAND COUNTY Q4 2014

CONTENTS Labor Market and Demand Overview Occupational Clusters Advanced Manufacturing: Skilled Trades & Technicians Advanced Manufacturing: Engineers & Designers Information Technology Health Care Retail & Hospitality

Labor Market and Demand Summary Data Notes and Sources

GEOGRAPHY

WIN region includes 9 counties: Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Macomb, Oakland, Shiawassee, St. Clair, Washtenaw, and Wayne.

This report focuses on Oakland County.

SECTION ONE LABOR MARKET AND DEMAND OVERVIEW

TOP 20 JOBS IN DEMAND OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2014

Software Developers for Applications and Retail Salespersons have been the top two posting jobs for several quarters in Oakland County, and this quarter is no exception. Software Developers for Applications hold the top spot at 913 job postings, while Retail Salespersons are at number two with 823. Registered Nurses did not make the top 5 spots last quarter, but have reclaimed the spot this quarter with 556 postings. Each of these jobs has high levels of posting for different reasons. Retails sales jobs are often high turnover and therefore must post frequently in order to keep a certain level of employment. Other jobs, like Software Developers, are experiencing great need at the moment and employers are scrambling to get the talent they need to fill these high demand jobs.

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EMPLOYMENT AND LABOR FORCE

EMPLOYMENT DEMAND OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2014

The labor force in Oakland County has been rising slowly since its lowest point in early 2011. In the current quarter, however, the labor force shrank, losing 4,265 individuals. Between Q3 2014 and Q4 2014, the labor force decreased by 0.7%. Although at the beginning of this year, Oakland County was on track to have a higher labor force number than last year’s annual count, continuing its slow climb, this decrease has caused the 2014 annual numbers to come in below the 2013 numbers. Between 2013 and 2014 in total, Oakland County’s labor force decreased by 2,208 people.

Unlike the labor force, employment in Oakland County increased between Q3 and Q4 2014 adding 1,572 individuals. Employment has not seen a decrease in annual numbers since the county began to come out of the recession in 2010. Since then, more than 36,500 individuals have gained employment. Although gains have been slow, employment levels are nearly recovered to the highest point seen in this data, occurring before the recession, in 2008. This trend of steady, positive growth is a good sign for the county.

The unemployment rate decreased from last quarter by 13.1%, resulting in an annual drop between 2013 and 2014 of a full percentage point—down from 8.1% to 7.1%. Although this appears to be a positive sign, because employment increases are occurring in tandem with labor force shrinkage, unemployment rates are not dropping due to people gaining jobs, but due to a smaller pool of available workers.

During Q4 2014, Oakland County job posting levels have declined for the third quarter in a row.

Although there was only a slight decrease this quarter, from 26,831 to 26,397, postings have fallen by over 4,600 postings since Q1 2014. However, postings have experienced large peaks and troughs since 2011, but remained more consistent throughout this year. Postings are still higher than they were for much of 2013, so this normalizing around 26,000 may be a steadying of postings for this county, with the exception of troughs that may be due to normal business cycles.

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EMPLOYMENT AND LABOR FORCE OVERVIEW

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SECTION TWO OCCUPATIONAL CLUSTERS

OAKLAND COUNTY DEMAND OVERVIEW

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS

ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS WIN’s technicians/skilled trades category includes jobs related to advanced manufacturing. Southeast Michigan has more demand for skilled- trades labor, such as CNC machinists and welders, than almost anywhere else in the country. In 2014, skilled trades employment reached 104,229 individuals in the WIN region. NOTE: Skilled trades related to construction and repair are not included in this cluster, as the focus is on advanced manufacturing.

The highest number of postings in the skilled trade and technician group are for First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers, the only occupation with over 100 postings, at 108 postings. Other top posting positions include Production Workers, All Other (86 postings), Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers and Weighers (79 postings) and Computer Controlled Machine Tool Operators, Metal and Plastic (78 postings).

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS: ONLINE JOB POSTINGS AND EMPLOYMENT OVER TIME

Skilled trades and technicians postings have remained steadier throughout 2014 than they have for the last several years. Q4 2014 represents the lowest number of postings in this occupation group this year, at 761 postings, but Q4 has consistently been the lowest point each year for the last several years, probably due to seasonal hiring trends.

Postings are higher this year than they were last year at this time, and have overall experienced less fluctuation. These jobs are not traditionally posted online but are often filled through unions, hiring halls, or word of mouth. The trend is shifting though, with more and more employers turning to online postings to find qualified workers. Skilled trade and technician postings represent 2.9% of total Oakland County online job postings.

Employment in Skilled Trades has been steadily increasing each year since the deepest trough in 2010, with a quick pace at first and now beginning to level. 30,842 individuals are employed in skilled trades and related occupations compared to 30,120 in 2013. Employment increased at a rate of 2.3% between this year and last. Employment in this occupation group is nearing pre-recession levels, but is beginning to stagnate at a slightly lower level.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS: TOP JOBS WAGES

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SKILLED TRADES AND TECHNICIANS: TOP JOBS EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT REQUIREMENTS

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS

ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS Jobs in the manufacturing industry can range from assembly and production, to skilled trades and technicians, designers and engineers, and even computer-related occupations such as software development. This section focuses on engineers & designers, which represent 74,198 employed individuals in Southeast Michigan.

Demand for engineers in the region has been consistent, and employment has been growing quickly.

Mechanical Engineers have consistently been the top posting occupation in engineer and designer postings for several quarters running. At 495 postings, Mechanical Engineers outpace the next highest posting occupation by almost 100.

Electrical Engineers and Civil Engineers are second and third on the list, with 397 and 318 postings respectively. These three occupations together represent 55.5% of engineering and designer job postings in Q4 2014. Other top jobs include Industrial Engineers (184 postings) and Commercial And Industrial Designers (177 postings).

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS: ONLINE JOB POSTINGS AND EMPLOYMENT OVER TIME

Engineer and designer postings in Oakland County have been mostly stagnant this year, remaining around the 2,500 mark. This quarter represents a slight drop in postings, but not to the extent that postings fluctuated throughout the last several years. This average, between 2,000 and 3,000 may be the new normal. 2015 data will confirm whether this trend continues. Engineer and designer postings represent 8.2% of total online job postings in Oakland County.

Employment in this occupational group has been steadily rising since the deepest trough in 2009. At 31,605 in 2014, employment has surpassed pre-recession employment and is continuing to grow. Engineering and Design employment is up 4% from 2013. Since 2009, more than 10,000 workers have gained employment in this sector.

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS: TOP JOBS WAGES

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS:TOP JOBS EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT REQUIREMENTS

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Information technology jobs include occupations that are associated with entry level, technical, and professional careers related to the design, development, support and management of hardware, software, multimedia, and systems integration services. While the information technology cluster does not currently meet the employment levels of the other clusters, it is quickly growing. In 2014, IT occupational employment was 74,309 in the WIN region. Top jobs in this cluster include computer support specialists, computer systems analysts, and software developers for applications.

More than a quarter of all IT postings in Oakland County are for Software Developers, Applications (913 postings).

This occupation has been at the top of IT postings for several years running. Other top postings include Computer Systems Analysts (438 postings), and Computer User Support Specialists (390 postings), which has also remained unchanged for several quarters. These three occupations together 49.6% of all IT postings in the county.

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ONLINE JOB POSTINGS AND EMPLOYMENT OVER TIME

IT postings in Oakland County have been declining throughout 2014. This quarter represents another drop between Q3 and Q4 2014, from 3,830 to 3,505 postings, but are down by almost 1,000 postings since the beginning of this year. Postings are slightly lower than they were this time last year, but are still maintaining a higher annual average than they have in years past. IT postings make up 13.3% of total postings in Oakland County, one of the highest shares across the WIN region.

Employment in this occupational group has been steadily rising since the deepest trough in 2009. At 32,329 in 2014, employment has surpassed pre-recession employment and is continuing to grow. Since 2009, almost 6,000 workers have gained employment in this sector.

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TOP JOBS WAGES

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TOP JOBS EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT REQUIREMENTS

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HEALTH CARE

HEALTH CARE WIN’s health care occupation cluster includes jobs related to health care support and practitioners. This cluster is one of Southeast Michigan’s largest with, 243,782 employees in 2014. Employment in this cluster has been consistently growing, more health care workers needed to care for Michigan’s aging population and in response to regulatory and other changes. Registered nurses are routinely the most in-demand job in this cluster.

Over 26% of health care job postings in Oakland County are for Registered Nurses (556 postings). This occupation has been the top online poster for several years running, and is typically the top posting occupation in this cluster across the WIN Region. Other top postings in this county include those for Physical Therapists (138 postings), Nursing Assistants (135 postings), and Medical Assistants (119 postings).

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HEALTH CARE ONLINE JOB POSTINGS AND EMPLOYMENT OVER TIME

Since Q2 2014, health care postings have been generally stagnant with a very slow climb upward. Between Q2 and Q3, health care postings rose by 46, and this quarter by a mere 22 postings. Postings are normalizing around a higher average than has been seen in the last several years. Health care occupation online postings represent 8% of all online job postings in Oakland County, a lower share of total postings than health care typically represents in most WIN region counties.

Although health care employment in Oakland County experienced a similar trough to other occupational groups during the recession, it recovered quickly and peaked in 2012. Since then, employment has been declining rather steadily but is still higher than pre-recession levels. In 2014, 70,309 individuals were employed across this occupational group. Healthcare represents the second largest employment cluster that WIN studies in Oakland County.

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HEALTH CARE TOP JOBS WAGES

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HEALTH CARE TOP JOBS EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT REQUIREMENTS

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RETAIL AND HOSPITALITY

RETAIL AND HOSPITALITY The retail and hospitality cluster is the largest occupational cluster that WIN analyzes, both in terms of employment and online job postings. This cluster is of very high importance to the region because it is the first to grow when the economy expands and the first to contract in a downturn: It is often a leading indicator. As defined by WIN, the retail and hospitality cluster encompasses all customer service occupations, with skills transferrable across the retail sector, the hotel industry, food and beverage service industry, call centers, and other areas. In 2014, 632,825 individuals were employmed in retail and hospitality related occupations in the region.

Retail and hospitality postings represent, by far, the largest share of the five occupation groups analyzed by WIN. Top jobs in this area include Retail Salespersons, typically the highest poster in this group (823 postings), Sales Representatives, Wholesale And Manufacturing, Except Technical And Scientific Products (570 postings), First-Line Supervisors Of Retail Sales Workers (524 postings), and Customer Service representatives (512 postings). These occupations typically land in some order in the top four spots each quarter.

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RETAIL AND HOSPITALITY ONLINE JOB POSTINGS AND EMPLOYMENT OVER TIME

Retail and hospitality online postings have been on a steady decline since the highest peak seen since data has been collected, in Q3 2013. Although there was another drop between Q3 2014 and Q4 2014, postings are still higher in the current quarter than they were throughout most of 2011 and 2012. Posting behavior in this cluster is often due to churn and turnover in staff in these positions, so a decrease in postings may simply mean that individuals are staying in their positions longer, not that there has been significant employment retraction. Retail & hospitality postings represent 20.7% of all online job postings in Oakland County, the most common posting occupation group in the region.

In 2014, 198,390 individuals are working across the retail and hospitality occupational group—the largest of any of the clusters WIN studies. Since the lowest trough in 2010, employment in this cluster has been steadily rising, with a negligible decline between this year and last. Employment has not yet recovered to pre-recession levels, but this industry has been growing quickly so that could occur within the next several years.

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RETAIL AND HOSPITALITY TOP JOBS WAGES

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RETAIL AND HOSPITALITY TOP JOBS EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT REQUIREMENTS

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SECTION THREE

LABOR MARKET AND DEMAND SUMMARY

SECTION FOUR

DATA NOTES AND SOURCES

The labor force in Oakland County has been rising slowly since its lowest point in early 2011. In the current quarter, however, the labor force retracted by 4,265 individuals.

Between Q3 2014 and Q4 2014, the labor force decreased by 0.7%. Between 2013 and 2014 in total, Oakland County’s labor force decreased by 2,208 people.

Unlike the labor force, employment in Oakland County increased between Q3 and Q4 2014, adding 1,572 individuals. Although gains have been slow, employment levels are nearly recovered to the highest point seen in this data, occurring before the recession, in 2008. This trend of steady, positive growth is a good sign for the county.

The unemployment rate decreased from last quarter by 13.1%, resulting in an annual drop between 2013 and 2014 of a full percentage point—down from 8.1% to 7.1%. Labor force decreases are outpacing employment growth, however, so unemployment rates are not dropping due to people gaining jobs, but due to a shrinking pool of available workers.

During Q4 2014, Oakland County job posting levels have declined for the third quarter in a row. Postings are still higher than they were for much of 2013, so this normalizing around the 26,000 mark may be a steadying of postings for this county, with the exception of troughs due to normal business cycles.

53% of online job postings in Oakland County are from one of the five occupation groups analyzed by WIN.

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DATA NOTES AND SOURCES SPECIAL DATA NOTE • Due to changes in Burning Glass’s aggregation, parsing, and deduplication methods implemented in December 2014, data from previously released reports should not be compared to data in reports starting in Q4 2014 and moving forward. For the Q4 2014 report, the WIN team re-gathered and analyzed all of the data (postings from 2011 through 2014) to ensure that all numbers are up-to-date. If you would like information on the differences between the updated data and data from previous reports, please contact WIN's Research Director Colby Spencer Cesaro at colby.cesaro@win-semich.org.

• Wage data that is not labeled as a national average is specific to each report's geography. For example, wage data reported in the WIN Region report is averaged across the 9-county WIN Region. Data in the Wayne County report is wage data solely for Wayne County.

• All numbers included in this report are the correct and updated data.

• Wage and educational attainment data available varies depending on the occupation. All wage and educational attainment data provided is for the 6digit SOC code. Some 6-digit codes do not have education or wage data available, in this case we leave the information blank.

• Educational attainment data available refers to the share of the current workforce in each bracket, not what is shown in postings. Employers may require different educational attainment that what is in this report.

• Quarterly reports: Due to a data update in Burning Glass Technologies’ Labor Insight tool, comparisons should not be made between data from each quarterly report and the annual review data should not be compared to data from previous quarterly reports.

• Adjustments to the labor force information were also made to reflect and incorporate updated inputs, re-estimation, and controlling to new statewide totals. Much of the information related to monthly and quarterly employment is updated several months after the initial release. More information can be found here: http://www.bls.gov/lau/launews1. htm

UNDERSTANDING DEMAND VS EMPLOYMENT • Employment refers to actual employment numbers—the number of people in jobs—in targeted industries or occupations.

• Demand refers to statistics derived from employer job postings, which indicate the potential for employment but may or may not materialize into actual jobs.

• Job posting-related demand, as presented in this report, is measured by online job postings. Employer demand may be larger than what is highlighted in this report if employers find talent by other means.

DATA SOURCES • Labor market demand data for this report was compiled using Burning Glass Technologies’ Labor Insight Tool, and analyzed by the Workforce Intelligence Network. Other data sources include, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. (EMSI). Check out our website http://www.winsemich.org for more data and detailed information about our sources.

UNDERSTANDING CLUSTERS • Rather than focusing on talent demand within industries (types of firms), WIN generally emphasizes exploring talent demand based on occupations, including the skills, educational credentials, and experience needed to work in them.

• WIN research examines industry data, as the health of companies can be useful for economic development purposes. However, shifting focus from industry to occupation is important as different types of occupations with extremely different skillsets may work within and across industries. For example, accountants, computer specialists, and engineers all may work in the manufacturing industry.

• By clustering occupations, the talent system can identify employer demand for particular skillsets across multiple industry types and develop a response through training and pipeline development to meet that demand.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT RESEARCH AND DATA, VISIT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.WIN-SEMICH.ORG/DATA-RESEARCH

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