© Copyright 2005 by the Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning

WYOMING LABOR FORCE TRENDS

Vol. 42 No. 8    

 

 

A Tool for Comparing the Strengths of Specific Industry Targets

by:  Mark A. Harris, Ph.D., Sociologist

Determining which industry has the optimal fit for any given community may depend upon the natural resource base, the characteristics of available labor, infrastructure, and the goals of the community as well as the educational/experience and wage characteristics of the associated occupations.

The following article demonstrates how publicly available data supplied by Research & Planning (R&P) can be used to compare the characteristics of occupations associated with three-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industries. Wyoming’s Staffing Patterns and Wages 2003 (hereafter referred to as the Staffing Pattern Matrix) lets local economic developers anticipate the likely educational/experience and wage requirements of a potentially relocating or new firm so their relative strengths can be evaluated. It also aids in answering questions about the fit between new economic development and the available workforce.

The industry targets explored here were identified in a recently published report to the Wyoming Business Council by The Wadley-Donovan Group (2005). The report shows specific industry targets for possible economic development within 12 population clusters (referred to as Zones) across the state. As an example, we explored occupational characteristics associated with the three Manufacturing target industries suggested for Zone 7, which consists of Lincoln (southern), Sweetwater (western), and Uinta counties (The Wadley-Donovan Group, 2005). The three Manufacturing targets include:

l    Prefabricated wood buildings (NAICS 321 wood product manufacturing)
l    Ammonium phosphate fertilizer production (NAICS 325 chemical manufacturing)
l    Miscellaneous plastic manufacturing (NAICS 326 plastics & rubber products manufacturing)

Staffing Pattern Data

R&P maintains an interactive tool available on our website (http://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/) that allows users to determine the typical occupations associated with three-digit NAICS industries (Glover, 2004). Users can choose a three-digit industry (e.g., 221 utilities) and level of industry employment (e.g., 50 jobs) to determine different occupational staffing requirements for six-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes. Tables also include associated wages as well as educational and experience levels for each occupation. Data utilized in the Staffing Pattern Matrix are primarily a repackaging of data from Wyoming’s Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program conducted in conjunction with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In this illustrative example, we use an estimated employment level of 100 jobs per industry to determine occupational staffing patterns for the three-digit industries identified above.

Educational and experience categories included in the staffing pattern matrix come from BLS (2004). Those appearing in this article include:

l    Short-term on-the-job training. Skills needed to be fully qualified can be acquired during a short demonstration of job duties or in less than 1 month of on-the-job experience or instruction.

l    Moderate-term on-the-job training. Skills needed to be fully qualified can be acquired during 1 to 12 months of combined on-the-job experience and informal training.

l    Long-term on-the-job training. More than 12 months of on-the-job training (OJT) or combined work experience and formal classroom instruction are needed for workers to develop the skills necessary to be fully qualified. This category includes formal and informal apprenticeships that may last up to 5 years. Long-term OJT training also includes intensive occupation-specific, employer-sponsored programs that workers must successfully complete. These include fire and police academies and schools for air traffic controllers and flight attendants. In other occupations— insurance sales and securities sales, for example— trainees take formal courses, often provided on the job site, to prepare for the required licensing exams. Individuals undergoing training generally are considered to be employed in the occupation. Also included in this category is the development of a natural ability— such as that possessed by musicians, athletes, actors, and other entertainers— that must be cultivated over several years, frequently in a non-work setting.

l    Experience in a related occupation. Many occupations requiring work experience are first-line supervisors/managers or other management occupations.

l    Postsecondary vocational award. Some programs last only a few weeks while others may last more than a year. Programs lead to a certificate or other award rather than a degree.

l    Associate’s degree. Completion of the degree usually requires at least 2 years of full-time academic study.

l    Bachelor’s degree. Completion of the degree usually requires at least 4 years of full-time academic study.

l    Bachelor’s or higher degree, plus work experience. Most occupations in this category are management occupations. All require experience in a related non-management position for which a bachelor’s or higher degree is usually required.

Comparative Results

The Staffing Pattern Matrix calculates expected employment relative to the existing distribution of industry occupational employment in Wyoming. When the percentage of employment in Wyoming (see “WY Percent” column in Tables 1, 2, and 3) drops below 0.5%, the program rounds expected employment to 0. Expected occupational employment in Wyoming for chemical manufacturing rounds to 0 after 88 jobs (see Table 2). As a result, the comparison reported in this article is restricted to the first 88 jobs in each industry.

Findings for Education and Experience

Wood product manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, and plastics & rubber products manufacturing all employ a substantial number of distinct occupations, from 17 in plastics & rubber products manufacturing (see Table 3) to 41 in chemical manufacturing (see Table 2). Plastics & rubber products manufacturing concentrates jobs within fewer occupations or has less occupational diversity than either wood product manufacturing or chemical manufacturing.

Jobs in Manufacturing industries targeted for Zone 7 have varying educational and experience requirements (see Figure 1). Occupations in wood product manufacturing primarily require short- and moderate-term OJT (84.1% of jobs). Relatively few jobs (5.7%) in wood product manufacturing require long-term OJT or higher experience and education (e.g., Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree).

Just over 55% of the jobs in plastics & rubber products manufacturing require moderate-term OJT and 23.9% require short-term OJT. Few plastics & rubber products manufacturing jobs require long-term OJT (2.3%). The remainder of jobs in plastics & rubber products manufacturing are in occupations that require related experience (10.2%) or a Bachelor’s degree plus work experience (8.0%).

Chemical manufacturing has the highest percentage of jobs requiring long-term OJT or higher experience and education (60.2%). Requirements for short- and moderate-term OJT are smaller than either wood product manufacturing or plastics & rubber products manufacturing. Of the three industries, jobs associated with chemical manufacturing are in occupations that require the highest levels of education and experience.

Plastics & rubber products manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, and wood product manufacturing have a preponderance of jobs within occupations that can be met with long-term OJT or less (81.1%, 73.9%, and 89.8%, respectively).

Findings for Wages

For illustrative purpose, wages are compared to the self-sufficiency standard for Uinta County (Pearce, 2005) in Zone 7. The self-sufficiency standard “defines the amount of income required to meet basic needs (including paying taxes) in the regular ‘marketplace’ without public or private/informal subsidies” (Pearce, 2005, p. 3). The self-sufficiency standard is calculated for eight different family types. The designation utilized here is for an adult with one infant (under 3 years old) and one preschooler (3 to 5 years old). Jobs displayed in Figure 2 represent the percentage that, on average, pay above the designated self-sufficiency standard.

The percentage earning above and below self-sufficiency for wood product manufacturing is based on 82 jobs rather than 88. For wood product manufacturing (see Table 1) there is no wage data for 51-7090 woodworkers, all other (i.e., six jobs). Among the jobs examined here, substantially higher percentages (78.4%) in chemical manufacturing have wages above the self-sufficiency standard in Uinta County compared to wood product manufacturing or plastics & rubber products manufacturing. Wood product manufacturing and plastics & rubber products manufacturing have less than 30.0% of jobs paying above the self-sufficiency standard for an adult plus an infant and a preschooler in Uinta County.

Summary and Conclusions

A previous study conducted by R&P shows that Manufacturing is the most underrepresented NAICS industry in Wyoming paying a living wage (Harris, 2003). Additionally, benefits data from employer surveys conducted by R&P indicate that 88.0% of employers in Manufacturing offer health insurance to their employees ( Leonard, 2005). Total compensation is relatively robust for Manufacturing. The addition of Manufacturing jobs to Zone 7 would help contribute to a diversification of the state’s economy at higher wages ( Harris, 2002).

Education and experience requirements are highest for chemical manufacturing but all three industries rely heavily upon occupations requiring short- and moderate-term OJT. Chemical manufacturing has a higher percentage of jobs in occupations paying an hourly wage above the self-sufficiency standard.

Determining which industry has the optimal fit for any given community may depend upon the natural resource base, the characteristics of available labor, infrastructure (roads, utilities, etc.), and the goals of the community as well as the educational/experience and wage characteristics of the associated occupations. The appropriateness of targeting industries that concentrate occupations with higher education and experience may be difficult if qualified labor cannot be found in or attracted to the work location. However, if the objective of development is to increase wages locally and labor can be made available, the pursuit of industries with a concentration of higher wage occupations is an appropriate strategy.

References

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2004). Occupational projections and training data. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Glover, W. (2004). Introduction to Wyoming’s occupational staffing patterns and wages 2003. Retrieved May 3, 2005, from http://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/staffingpatterns2003/staffingpatterns2003.htm 

Harris, M. (2002). Is Wyoming’s economy diversifying and is economic diversity in Wyoming desirable? Wyoming Labor Force Trends, 39(9), 1-9. Retrieved May 3, 2005, from http://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/0902/0902.pdf 

Harris, M. (2003). Identifying potential living-wage employment growth opportunities in Wyoming. Wyoming Labor Force Trends, 40(5), 1-11. Retrieved May 3, 2005, from http://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/0503/0503.pdf 

Leonard, D. (2005). Manufacturing. In T. Gallagher, M. A. Harris, M. Hiatt, D. Leonard, S. Saulcy, and K. R. Shinkle. Private sector employee access to health insurance and the potential Wyo-Care market (pp. 135-152). Casper, WY: Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning.

Pearce, D. (2005, Winter). The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Wyoming.

The Wadley-Donovan Group. (2005). Locational assessment Wyoming Zone 7 – Lincoln (southern), Sweetwater (western), and Uinta counties. Retrieved May 3, 2005, from http://www.taimerica.com/wyoming/reports.html 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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