New Orleans Vacancies by Occupational Group Where are the vacancies? Occupational Group Number of Vacancies Employment in Occupation Percent Requiring More than a School Diploma Percent Requiring at Least Some Work Experience Median Hourly Wage Offered Office & Administrative Support Food Preparation & Servicing Related Sales & Related Transportation & Material Moving Building & Grounds Cleaning & Maintenance Healthcare Practitioner & Technical Healthcare Support Installation, Maintenance & Repair Construction & Extraction Personal Care & Service Protective Service Education, Training & Library Architecture & Engineering Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports & Media Management Business & Financial Operations Production Computer & Mathematical Science Life, Physical & Social Science Community & Social Services Legal Non-Classifiable Occupations Farming, Fishing & Forestry 2,105 2,100 1,557 1,429 1,072 856 6 516 365 298 296 271 220 213 175 2 139 1 73 61 45 45 6 108,850 64,020 62,500 47,990 20,9 36,050 17,520 25,440 28,470 18,560 16,840 32,580 9,9 6,660 31,0 21,180 33,210 7,810 4,540 7,4 6,0 NA 6 22.3% 1.6% 32.3% 10.4% 19.5% 88.8% 68.3% 51.5% 56.3% 25.3% 3.1% 94.6% 49.0% 94.6% 66.9% 47.5% 68.7% 0.0% 0.0% 78.8% 52.0% 58.3% 74.3% 67.9% 86.1% 68.3% 86.5% 44.4% 86.8% 58.1% 58.4% 42.7% 96.6% NA 84.3% 0.0% $9.00 $6.00 $7.00 $8.22 $7.00 $16.83 $8.00 $8.00 $7.50 $6.00 $9.00 $6.00 $25.00 $7.00 $24.04 $19.23 $9.00 $26.44 $24.07 $9.62 $26.44 $10.00 $5.65 Total, All Occupational Groups 12,711 608,580 36.7% 71.1% $8.00 Job titles with many openings Cashiers 647 openings Stock Clerks and Order Fillers 642 openings Retail Salespersons 541 openings Truck Drivers, Heavy and Tractor-Trailer 520 openings Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners 482 openings Fast Food and Counter Workers 463 openings Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses 352 openings Food Preparation & Serving Related Workers, All Other 9 openings Registered Nurses 284 openings Taxi Drivers and Chauffeurs 274 openings Page 2 Help Wanted: lights from the 4th Quarter 2004 Louisiana Job Vacancy Survey
New Orleans Vacancies by Industry Group Industry Group Number of Vacancies Industry Employment Vacancy Rate Median Hourly Wage Offered Trade, Transportation & Utilities Leisure & Hospitality Education & Health Services Professional & Business Services Financial Activities Other Services Construction Manufacturing Information Natural Resources & Mining 4,380 2,4 1,780 1,775 731 670 475 332 3 11 1,7 86,694 134,743 77,294 35,431 17,707 32,996 41,060 11,198 9,477 3.4% 2.8% 1.3% 2.3% 2.1% 3.8% 1.4% 0.8% 1.3% 0.1% $7.00 $5.75 $9.00 $8.50 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $11.94 $9.92 $23.08 Total, All Industry Groups 12,711 576,747 2.20% $8.00 What do these numbers mean? There were 12,711 job vacancies in the New Orleans Regional Labor Market Area (RLMA 1), for a vacancy rate of 2.2 percent. This means that for every 100 jobs, approximately two were vacant at the time of the survey. The Office & Administrative Support occupational group had the highest number of vacancies (2,105), comprising approximately 17 percent of all reported openings. The Food Preparation & Serving Related occupational group took second place in the number of vacancies (2,100) for the 4 th quarter 2004 survey. The Trade, Transportation & Utilities industry group had the largest number of vacancies (4,380), accounting for 34 percent of the vacancies in this survey. Two of the occupational groups with a large number of vacancies can be found in this industry group: Sales & Related and Transportation & Material Moving. Education and experience requirements varied widely across occupational groups. Food Preparation & Serving Related, Protective Service, and Farming, Fishing & Forestry occupational groups had the smallest number of job vacancies requiring more than a high school diploma, while Education, Training & Library and Architecture & Engineering occupational groups had the largest percentage of job vacancies requiring more than a high school diploma. The occupational groups of Computer & Mathematical Science; Life, Physical & Social Science; and Legal all reported 100% of their vacancies required more than a high school diploma. Almost three-fourths of the job vacancies require at least some work experience. Wages varied by occupation from a median wage of $5.65 for Farming, Fishing & Forestry to a median wage of $25.00 for Architecture & Engineering. Median wage for all occupational groups was $8.00. Help Wanted: lights from the 4th Quarter 2004 Louisiana Job Vacancy Survey Page 3
A Snapshot of New Orleans job vacancies Overall, New Orleans area employers were seeking experienced workers for the 4 th quarter 2004. Just over 70 percent of all reported vacancies required at least some previous work experience. Approximately one in four vacancies required some experience in any field, 28 percent required up to two years experience in the same field, and approximately one in six vacancies required more than two years of experience in the same field. How are experience, education and pay related? Tenure is a way of identifying how experience, education and pay relate to one another. Employees with higher years of tenure usually have higher levels of education, more experience, and are paid more, while employees with less education and experience find themselves in low paying jobs that have more turnover. Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2004 Employee Tenure report, jobs with noticeably high employee tenure included management occupations (6.0 years), architecture and engineering occupations (5.8 years), protection service occupations (5.5 years), education, training, and library occupations (5.1 years), production occupations (5.0 years), and healthcare practitioner and technical occupations (4.5 years). Jobs with somewhat low employee tenure included food preparation and serving related occupations (1.8 years), personal care and service occupations (2.7 years), sales and related occupations (2.8 years), and healthcare support occupations (2.9 years). Only 13 percent of New Orleans area job vacancies required a four-year college degree or higher. Nine percent required a bachelor s degree, while four percent required an advanced degree. Educational attainment of a high school diploma or less was required by 63 percent of the job vacancies reported. Six percent of the vacancies required a two-year college degree and 18 percent of the vacancies required vocational training or certification. The majority of the job vacancies paid from $5.16 to $10.00 an hour, with the largest share of vacancies (36%) paying $7.01 to $10.00 and the second largest share (31%) paying $5.16 to $7.00. Ten out of 100 job vacancies paid $5.15 or less, while 11 out of 100 job vacancies paid over $16.00 an hour. More than 2 years of experience in the same field Up to 2 years of experience in the same field Some experience in any field No experience required How much experience do New Orleans job vacancies require? 16% 26% 28% 29% Page 4 Help Wanted: lights from the 4th Quarter 2004 Louisiana Job Vacancy Survey
How much education do New Orleans job vacancies require? What is the difference between an industry and an occupation? Advanced degree Bachelor s degree Two-year college degree Vocational training or certification school diploma or less 4% 9% 6% 18% 63% An industry is a group of establishments, categorized according to the goods or services they provide. For purposes of this study, many of the industry sectors are grouped together to provide summary information. For instance, the industry sectors of Wholesale Trade, Retail Trade, Transportation and Warehousing, and Utilities are combined to form a summary industry group called Trade, Transportation & Utilities. How much do New Orleans job vacancies pay? 36% 31% An occupational group is a group of workers, categorized according to the skills they have and what they do on the job. For example, Healthcare Practitioner and Technical Occupations is one occupational group that includes many different types of occupations such as Dentists, Optometrists, Therapists, Veterinarians, Diagnostic related Technologists and Technicians, and Medical Records and Health Information Technicians. These are just a few of the occupations you can find in this occupational group. 11% 7% 6% 10% Each industry contains a variety of occupations, and many occupations may be found in every industry. Using Healthcare Services (part of the summary industry group of Education & Health Services) as an example, you may find the following occupations in a hospital: doctors, therapists, office managers, medical records clerks, housekeepers, nurses, food preparation workers, and Over $16.00 $13.01-$16.00 $10.01-$13.00 $7.01-$10.00 $5.16-$7.00 $5.15 or less maintenance workers. Help Wanted: lights from the 4th Quarter 2004 Louisiana Job Vacancy Survey Page 5
What did employers say? Employers Responses to the Open-Ended Question: In trying to fill this position, what is the greatest difficulty you have faced, if any? * Reported Difficulty We have been unable to find qualified applicants and/or qualified applicants with experience. We have been unable to find applicants with the specific experience/training/skills that we are seeking. There is a shortage of people in the occupation. Some aspect of the job is undesirable to applicants (such as shifts, weekends, heavy lifting). The work ethic of people, once they are hired is unacceptable. This included comments on appearance, social skills, attitude, maturity, and dependability. Turnover keeping people once they have been hired is the biggest problem. Finding people that want to work. Not enough applications submitted. Finding people to pass a drug test or background check. Some other difficulty mentioned. No reported difficulty in filling vacancy. Number of Responses 23 36 5 10 18 6 13 7 21 25 Percent of Responses.0% 22.0% 3.0% 6.1% 11.0% 3.7% 7.9% 4.3% 12.8% 15.2% Total Responding to this Question 164 * Confidentiality concerns precluded publishing employers verbatim responses. However, an LDOL analyst reviewed all responses to the question above, grouped similar responses together, then re-worded the similar responses into one representative sentence or phrase, as shown above. Data shown in this table are unweighted. Percentages may not total to 100 percent due to rounding. Page 6 Help Wanted: lights from the 4th Quarter 2004 Louisiana Job Vacancy Survey
Major Occupational Group Number of Vacancies Vacancy Rate Hiring Demand Index* Median Number of Days Position was Vacant Architecture & Engineering Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports & Media Building & Grounds Cleaning & Maintenance Business & Financial Operations Community & Social Services Computer & Mathematical Science Construction & Extraction Education, Training & Library Farming, Fishing & Forestry Food Preparation & Serving Related Healthcare Practitioner & Technical Healthcare Support Installation, Maintenance & Repair Legal Life, Physical & Social Science Management Non-Classifiable Occupations Office & Administrative Support Personal Care & Service Production Protective Service Sales & Related Transportation & Material Moving 220 213 1,072 2 61 1 365 271 6 2,100 856 6 516 45 73 175 45 2,105 298 139 296 1,557 1,429 2.21% 3.19% 5.12% 0.67% 0.83% 1.46% 1.28% 0.83% 1.00% 3.28% 2.37% 3.50% 2.03% 0.73% 1.60% 0.56% NA 1.93% 1.60% 0.42% 1.76% 2.49% 2.98% NA 35 60 21 2 7 49 60 Total, All Occupations 12,711 2.09% 21 Taking all of the labor shortage indicators together (vacancy rate, hiring demand index, and the length of time vacancies remained unfilled), there was no evidence of severe labor shortages in any occupational group. The overall vacancy rate for the New Orleans area for 4 th quarter 2004 was 2.09 percent, and positions stayed vacant for a median of 21 days, indicating that employers were able to fill a manageable number of vacancies in a reasonable amount of time. There was one occupational group that appeared to be experiencing mild storages: Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports & Media. It had a relatively high vacancy rate, high hiring demand index, and vacancies that stayed open for a period of time above the median time period. *The Hiring Demand Index indicates whether demand for workers in an occupational group is more than what we would expect from turnover levels alone. A high score on the Hiring Demand Index means that, all else equal, a labor shortage is likely, because there are more openings than we would expect to see from normal turnover alone. A low score means that a labor shortage is unlikely, because there are not more openings than we would expect to see from turnover alone. See the back cover of this report for more details on this measure. Are there labor shortages in New Orleans? Help Wanted: lights from the 4th Quarter 2004 Louisiana Job Vacancy Survey Page 7