Record employment rates mean new opportunities to train up the metro-east workforce
After dropping out of school, Miranda Frisbie found she had to bounce from job to job to make ends meet.
But since becoming a licensed practical nurse through a state-funded training program, she’s held a well-paying and stable full-time job at Red Bud Regional Hospital. She’s currently enrolled at Southwestern Illinois College, studying to become a registered nurse.
The strong job market in almost all of Illinois’ metro areas — marked locally by record employment statistics in St. Clair and Madison counties — is creating similar training and employment opportunities for other low- or non-skilled workers.
The metro-east saw its unemployment rate drop to 3.4% in 2019 from 4.5% the year prior, according to the Illinois Department of Labor. The metro-east posted the lowest November unemployment rate on record.
Tony Fuhrmann, Madison County’s Employment and Training director, said job growth can be attributed to several factors, including regional and local investments into developing the workforce. Opportunities in the medical and manufacturing sectors, in particular, are “booming,” Fuhrmann says.
“Just driving down the road, everywhere you look there’s help wanted signs. It doesn’t matter what the industry is there’s just a need for employees,” he said.
That demand is creating opportunities for previously untapped work pools. Employers who otherwise have trouble filling positions in a strong economy are finding qualified candidates in workers like Frisbie, who take advantage of state- and federally funded training programs to gain new work skills.
Record employment
The number of employed workers in the metro-east increased by roughly 6,541 from the November 2018 total of 329,177, according to the Illinois Department of Labor.
In St. Clair County the unemployment rate has dropped to 3.8% from 5%. In Madison County, it fell from 4.4% to 3.3%. The entire metro-east saw a .9 to 1.2% decrease.
In both Madison and St. Clair County the medical and manufacturing fields saw major growth in 2019, according to county officials. That’s expected to continue into 2020, Fuhrmann said.
“The job market is strong and it’s going to stay strong,” Fuhrmann said. “We’re seeing nothing that indicates that there’s going to be a downturn in the economy and job loss in our area.”
With so few seeking employment, Fuhrmann and St. Clair County’s Intergovernmental Grants and Economic Development departments Executive Director Rick Stubblefield say employers are struggling to fill open positions.
Furhmann and Stubblefield, whose agencies service a combined nine southwestern Illinois counties, say addressing the need for a qualified workforce is where they come in by helping individuals like Frisbie train for a new line of work.
“Unfortunately it creates a whole different set of problems for employers because employers have a much harder time finding talent,” Stubblefield said. “Due to that, employers are beginning to take a look at some nontraditional candidates.”
Training new workforce pools
Those nontraditional candidates may include recently released convicts, the newly unemployed, low-income or unskilled workers, high school students or students who dropped out of school, transitioning military and others.
“Employers are maybe reaching a little farther out and digging deeper and finding individuals who have a lot of skills and a lot of talent but maybe were not quite in the mainstream before,” Stubblefield said.
Frisbie, who currently works as an LPN nurse at Red Bud Regional Hospital, said she has the job she has today because of the Illinois Workforce and Opportunity Act (WIOA) program. She said after dropping out of home school earlier in her life, she felt aimless and worried she wouldn’t be able to find anything past drifting from job to job.
In 2018 she discovered the WIOA program and, with its funding, enrolled in the Beck School of Practical Nursing in Red Bud where she earned practical nursing license. Not long after she was offered her current job at Red Bud Regional Hospital.
“I didn’t think I could go back to school because for me there wasn’t any way to go back to school,” she said. “WIOA stepped in and said ‘we’ve got you.’ It gave me the boost that I needed.”
Frisbie is continuing her studies at Southwestern Illinois College where she hopes of becoming a registered nurse. This year she earned WIOA’s Individual Achievement Award for her success in the program. She said without WIOA, which provided funding for her tuition and materials for nursing school, she wouldn’t be where she is today.
Stubblefield said Frisbie’s story is just one of many where individuals have used state programs to get workforce training. He said these programs, along with a new surge in apprenticeships, are the best way local workforce development organizations can help employees and employers.
Funding for programs like WIOA comes from federal funding from the U.S. Department of Labor and funnels through Illinois’ Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Its aim is to help get those untapped workforce pools ready for jobs through training.
Their services may include job listings, employment training, skill assessments, career counseling, job search help, vocational training, on-site training, recruitment help, youth employment and development, holding job fairs and more.
Fuhrmann said partnerships with community colleges and other trainers in the area also are a big part of the operation.
A new trend that is hoped to further develop the workforce is the resurgence of apprenticeships. Furhmann said there is a push at the federal and state level to bolster apprenticeship programs, which offer on-site work experience for those looking to work in a certain industry.
Worker Resources
St. Clair and Madison counties hosted an apprenticeship fair in Collinsville Jan. 23, from 9 a.m to noon where local businesses, colleges and workforce development officials will discuss apprenticeship opportunities.
The same day in nearby Edwardsville, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the state’s plan to fund the construction of a health sciences facility at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville aimed to train more RNs and health care workers.
Stubblefield and Furhmann both said the metro-east workforce stands out on the state level when it comes to quality.
“This region, at least on the workforce side, works very well together,” he said. “I think there’s the county line of Madison and St. Clair and the other counties but in our mind, we work as one area especially on the workforce side and training side.”
Anyone interested in the WIOA program can find more information at illinoisworknet.com/wioa.
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 8:59 AM.