WIOA State Plan Common Elements

Note: Occupations were selected using unrounded data based on the descending order of the average ranking based on four variables: growth, openings, wages, and Help Wanted Online job ads. Wages based on the May 2016 OES employment and wage estimate file. Data provided by the Alabama Department of Labor, Labor Market Information Division in cooperation with the Projections Managing Partnership, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. * Median Work Keys Scores represent employer identified skills and skill levels (by occupation) required for both current and prospective employees to be successful on the job. Work Keys Scores scale is from one (low skill requirement) to seven (high skill requirement). Totals in some occupational groups may not add due to exclusion of sub-groups and/or individual occupations with employment of less than 10 in the base (2014) and projected (2024) years or where publication of the occupation would violate confidentiality. *** The data for these occupations are confidential according to standards provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1. Employment is rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Average Annual Growth is compounded. 3. Openings are rounded to the nearest 5. * Percent change is based on unrounded data.

The average monthly wage across all industries in the state was $3,204. New hire monthly earnings averaged $2,196 or 68.5 percent of the average monthly wage. The highest average monthly wages were for mining at $6,196; utilities $5,725; professional, scientific, and technical services at $5,299; and finance and insurance $4,725. Accommodation and food services paid the least at $1,216. Mining had the highest average monthly new hire wage at $5,173 followed by professional, scientific, and technical services at $4,273 and utilities at $3,610. Accommodation and food services paid newly hired workers the least, $1,031.

The leading employers were not the highest paying sectors. Of the top five employers, only manufacturing paid wages above the state average. The highest wages were in small employers—mining; professional, scientific, and technical services; utilities; and finance and insurance. By broad industry classification, service providing industries generated 75.6 percent of total state jobs in second quarter 2014. Goods producing industries were next with 19.4 percent and public administration accounted for 5.0 percent. The distribution is for all nonagricultural jobs and there is significant variation by workforce development region.

At 20.7 percent, older workers (age 55 and over) constitute a significant and growing part of total nonagricultural employment. The share of older workers for the WDRs ranged from 18.6 percent for WDR 8 to 25.1 percent for WDR 6. To meet long term occupational projections for growth and replacement, labor force participation of younger residents must increase otherwise older workers may be required to work longer.

Alabama continues to experience a larger number of its residents commuting to other states to work, than those commuting into Alabama to work. In 2015, commuter outflow exceeded inflow by approximately 39,073, a 3 percent decrease from the previous year. Approximately 25,350 of these out commuters are under the age of 30. Additionally 42.2 percent of the out commuters earn more than $3,333 per month, while only 39.5 percent of workers living and working in Alabama earn above $3,333 monthly. A majority of Alabama’s out commuters continue to work in the State of Georgia more than any other state, with just over 46,000. The combined total of out commuters to Mississippi, Florida, and Tennessee was approximately 43,000.

(II)(a)(1)(B)(iii) Education and Skill Levels of the Workforce

In 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revised their assignment of educational and training categories to occupations. While these assignments represent a typical path to enter an occupation, more often than not additional training must occur to develop employees to perform more specified tasks. Using American Community Survey (ACS) and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) data, BLS assigned every occupation an education and training category including three parts; typical education needed for entry, work experience required in a related occupation, and typical on-the-job training.

Using these assignments, the training and educational level of the present workforce and future needs of the workforce was analyzed in Alabama using 2012-2022 occupational employment projections data. In 2012, only 30.0 percent of the people worked in occupations that required formal education beyond high school. In other words, only 30.0 percent of the jobs required at least some college or postsecondary award or certification to qualify them to enter employment. However, around half the people in jobs that didn’t require formal training, high school diploma or less, were still required to successfully complete some level of moderate to long term training to learn the specific duties of the job. When looking at the projected employment through 2022, the state is expected to grow 10.4 percent. Analyzing the projected growth by formal training categories, jobs requiring an associate’s degree are expected to grow the most at 18.9 percent, significantly higher than the state average. Furthermore, all categories from some college without a degree all the way through a doctoral or professional degree are expected to grow at a rate higher than the state average. This is the norm throughout the country. Those jobs only requiring a high school diploma or less are projected to grow near 9.0 percent over the period.

Looking at projected growth by on-the-job training requirements, jobs requiring apprenticeships are projected to grow twice as fast as the state average, at 20.3 percent. Statistics have always shown that education pays, and the data still holds true. But in 2013 in Alabama, the average salary for the workforce in jobs requiring an associate degree, $48,622, nearly equaled the state average salary for all occupations at $48,723. The data also proves that work experience pays more; for, people holding jobs that required work experience to enter the occupation, received higher than the average wages for all occupations in the state. Those requiring at least five years of work experience nearly double the salary of the state average.

In recent years, national attention has been drawn to skills requirements for jobs. Employers are telling workforce development officials that they cannot find people with the skills to fill their open positions. Often employers and public officials will use the term “high skilled jobs” or that they can’t find skilled people to fill these jobs. The understanding is that these gaps are often in skilled trade positions and jobs that do require training past high school, some more intensive than others, but don’t require as high as a bachelor degree to enter the job and be successful. Some researchers have begun using terms such as low skill, medium skill, and high skill jobs. Low skill are jobs that require a high school diploma or GED or less and no further training to enter the occupation. High skill jobs require a bachelor’s degree or higher. Medium skill jobs have become the focus of workforce development efforts. These are jobs that may not require a degree, but do require at least some training after high school, whether it’s extensive on the job training, or a certification, license, or apprenticeship, or maybe an associate degree. These are the jobs employers are experiencing difficulties filling. Over a third of the jobs in Alabama fall into this category. Furthermore, looking at the top forty occupations that ADOL determined to be high demand for the projection period of 2014-2024, not only are there more people currently employed in those high demand medium skilled jobs, than the high and low skilled jobs combined, there will obviously be more openings due to growth and replacement in those jobs than the high and low skilled combined. Just the medium skilled high demand jobs alone were projected to create over 32,000 new jobs through 2024. These are the jobs that are important to fill, for these are determined to be growing faster than average, produce a large number of job openings, and also provide a sustainable wage.

During the 2011-2012 school year Alabama’s high school graduation rate was 75.0 percent, higher than only ten states in the nation, with the national rate at 80.0 percent. Education and public officials in the state have worked tirelessly to improve the graduation rate, implementing PLAN 2020, with the goal of preparing all students to be successful in college and/or career upon graduation from high school, and getting the high school graduation rate up to 90.0 percent by 2020. As a result, during the 2013-2014 school year, Alabama’s high school graduation rate was up to 86.3 percent, up from 80.0 percent the previous year. Furthermore Alabama had the nation’s second highest increase behind Delaware in the same time period. Hot off the presses, on January 14, 2016 the Alabama State Department of Education announced that early results show that during the 2013-2014 school year, the graduation rate increased to 89.0 percent. Early data shows that approximately 68.0 percent of those met standards for either college, work, or the military. Although the graduation rate has improved, the percentage of students, enrolled in Alabama public colleges, taking remedial classes has remained steady at 32.0 percent. Half the high school graduates in Alabama in enrolled in Alabama public colleges. Of these nearly 23,000 students, 15.0 percent of them took remedial math, 5.6 percent took remedial English, and another 11.4 percent took both remedial math and English in college. The large percentage of Alabama students required to take remedial classes beyond high school intensifies the gaps in decision making and problem solving skills. Alabamians who are weak in the basic math and English skills will be less likely to be able to apply these to everyday workplace decisions.

(II)(a)(1)(B)(iv) Skill Gaps

According to employers, the more apparent problem with the workforce in the state is a lack of soft skills. Skills such as work ethic, dependability, basic comprehension skills, ability to follow rules, critical thinking, and leadership are lacking in the workforce in the state. Alabama’s Ready To Work program, provided at 63 sites, was developed to train students in basic skills requiring a 95.0 percent attendance and punctuality rate, a 70.0 percent score on the Alabama Certified Worker Examination, a minimum WorkKeys Assessment Level 3 on Applied Math, reading for information, and locating information, and others. The AIDT Maritime Training Center in Mobile reports that tardiness and absenteeism is the major cause of the industry’s 38.0 percent turnover rate. A survey conducted by Southwest Alabama Workforce Development Council (SAWDC), revealed that the main reasons for terminating employees were not lack of technical skills, but tardiness, absences, and lack of teamwork.

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET), divides skills into various categories, with basic skills being skills that all occupations require at some level. O*NET also uses additional categories of skills, such as complex problem solving, resource management, social, systems, and technical skills. For total openings projected for Alabama through 2018, the highest skills gaps are expected to occur in basic skills, obviously because these skills are present in all occupations. The most critical of these skills was reading comprehension, with active listening next. The resource management skill which will experience the highest gap is time management. The highest skills gap for systems skills was in judgment and decision making, and the highest for technical skills was equipment selection.

In closer examination of the required skills for Alabama’s projected high demand, fast growing, and high earning occupations, a determination was made on the percentage of occupations that include a particular skills as primary, or ranked in the ten most important skills for the occupation (Table 24). Complex problem solving is a primary skill in 58.0 percent, judgment and decision making primary in 65.0 percent, and social perceptiveness in 55.0 percent of the high demand occupations. Technical skills which were prominent in the high demand occupations were operation monitoring (watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly) and quality control analysis (conducting tests and inspections of products, services or processes to evaluate quality or performance).

Table 20. Percentage of Selected Occupations for Which Skill Is Primary

Note: Rounding errors may be present

Source: O*NET Online and Center for Business and Economic Research, The University of Alabama

While data collected at the national and state level are helpful to identify very general skills that are lacking in the workforce, it is vital for workforce development partners to ascertain more specific information. Employers are experiencing firsthand the skills gap problems and are an excellent resource to determine the skills that are lacking in the workforce.

According to employers in manufacturing, utilities, and construction industries across the state, applicants are rejected often because they do not display essential skills rather than lacking technical skills. The 2013 Alabama Skills Gap Survey reported that 67% of respondents rejected applicants due to poor attitude or presentation. Employers also listed additional reasons for rejecting applicants such as lack of driver’s license or reliable transportation, attendance history, employment history, and failed employment skills testing. When those employers were asked to identify weaknesses in their existing workforce, the overwhelming response was attendance problems. Over 800 employers indicated following directions, and approximately 750 employers chose time management as major deficiencies in their workforce. Employers were asked which of the three would be the most valuable training to improve the workforce between more education, occupational experience or skills, or soft skills. Employers indicated that training in soft skills would be most valuable to improve the workforce.

Youth in Alabama have the lowest participation in the labor force than any other age group. Youth who are participating in the labor force experience the highest unemployment rate of all age groups. Research conducted by the Education Testing Service reported that adults born after 1980 are weak in literacy, math, and problem solving in the present high tech environment. The data reports that this population in the U.S. is far weaker than other countries, and can hurt the economy in the U.S. According to the Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE), over 3,500 students graduating in 2015 who enrolled in Alabama public colleges were required to take remedial math classes in college. Additionally, 30% of the graduates in Alabama’s public colleges were enrolled in remedial math, remedial English, or both.

While youth in Alabama display gaps in math and reading skills, employers are concerned more about life skills. Youth are lacking fundamental skills which employers expect all employees to have; punctuality, good attendance, respect for superiors, and motivation. In addition, employers are concerned about skills involving teamwork and communication. The education system is addressing these skills with students enrolled in K-12 and in community colleges, but out of school youth need training in these essential skills that will allow them to be successful in the work place.

Adults face many of the same challenges as youth. As mentioned above, people born after 1980 that reside in this country are weaker in math and reading skills than those in other countries. As a result, even adults into their 30’s need assistance in developing these skills. Many adults born before 1980 need additional training in using today’s technology. Many older adults are not as computer literate as today’s workplace requires. Burning Glass reported that 78% of middle-skill jobs in the country require computer skills, such as spreadsheet and word processing. In today’s world, problem solving in the workplace requires an understanding of digital technology. Adults need computer skills to seek job opportunities, apply for jobs, develop a resume, at the very least, and a large number of adults in Alabama need computer applications training. More than a third of Alabamians lack internet access, either due to service area or choice not to pay for service. Many of these residents are low-income individuals, who need assistance to gain additional skills that can help them secure sustainable employment.

The TANF population all fall into the “Low Income Individuals” category. However, they may be represented in of several of the categories listed above. TANF clients are the larger welfare population while JOBS clients are a subset of TANF clients that participate in the TANF work program known as JOBS. Analysis and observations show the following:

• 20% of TANF clients lack a high school diploma or GED

• Majority of JOBS client lack a substantive work history

• Majority of JOBS clients lack reliable transportation

• Majority of TANF clients lack reliable/legal Child Care services

Soft Skills deficiencies for JOBS clients include:

• Attendance
• Attire
• Customer Service
• Communication
• Adaptability
• Problem Solving
• Computer knowledge
• Work Ethic
• Research
• Writing

(II)(a)(1)(B)(iv) Skill Gaps (continued)

The JOBS Program in Alabama referred 3,731 clients to job readiness classes during 2015 with the intention of developing and/or significantly improving the client’s work skills, especially soft skills. From these, a total of 1,065 people acquired employment. Further investigation reveals that out of a total 233 new hires for the year, 138 remained employed for at least 90 days after their start date.

SNAP participants fall in the “Low Income” category. Many participants in this category face barriers to employment, especially ABAWDS (Able Bodied Adults without Dependents). There are approximately 14,729 ABAWDs in the state that are unemployed. There are an additional 86,881 SNAP participants that are not working for various reasons. Currently, ABAWDS in 10 counties are referred to partnering Career Centers for assistance to find employment. While there, participants may also receive assistance with skills gaps that are barriers to employment. Some of the skills gaps identified by the Career Centers are:

• Effective Communication skills
• Computer Skills
• Conflict Resolution skills
• Customer Service Skills
• Dressing for Success
• Interviewing Skills
• Resume Preparation
• Soft Skills (How to Maintain Employment)
• Coping with Change
• Teamwork
• Time Management
• Effectively Dealing with Stress
• Work Ethics

The aforementioned gaps are confirmed with our Alabama Department of Labor Career Center partners, who work with our clients to meet these needs on a regular basis. Many Career Center locations hold workshops on location to cover these topics in an effort to educate the population that we serve with the overall goal in mind of improving a participant’s employability. Approximately 10% of those referred are taking advantage of the services currently offered at the Career Centers but we are maximizing our efforts to increase that number to help ensure that all in need receive the best services afforded to them. Although only ABAWDS are currently referred to the Career Center, any SNAP participant may partake of the services that are offered at the various Career Centers located throughout the state. Through our many visits, it has been made known that many other SNAP participants do take advantage of the Career Center services offered, they simply are not ABAWDs.

Alabama’s residents who are faced with some type of disability have additional barriers and unique skills gaps. Data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and American Community Survey demonstrate that approximately 73% of working age Alabamians with a disability who wish to participate in the labor force are unemployed. While each individual with a disability’s barriers to employment are unique, it may be observed that certain skill-gaps are quite common. Data on educational outcomes and skill attainment consistently show disproportionately lower outcomes among Alabamians with disabilities, particularly among those disabled at an early age. Educational qualifications appear to be of critical importance to Alabamians with disabilities as they pursue entry to the labor market. The positive effects of post-secondary training upon both labor force participation and lifetime earnings of persons with disabilities is firmly established within data from the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics. After reviewing consumer surveys, findings from public hearings, and VR’s most recent Comprehensive Needs Assessment, ADRS identified the most common skills gap, or barriers to skills attainment, faced by ADRS consumers. They are as follows:

A. The majority of Alabamians with disabilities who are capable of post-secondary education require reasonable accommodations within the postsecondary setting. Yet many never receive these accommodations. VR’s instruction in the self-advocacy skills needed to acquire academic accommodations has been proven effective in this regard. VR counselors also assist students with disabilities in their pursuit of academic accommodations by helping them obtain the necessary documentation that is required.

B. Alabamians with disabilities have a need for greater access to rehabilitation technology resources to include assistance in selecting the right solution, training in the use of these resources, and financial assistance to acquire them.

C. Because of the inherent limitations posed by some disabilities, Alabamians with disabilities must make informed choices regarding their vocational goal selection and subsequent career pathways in order to minimize barriers to employment and maximize success on the job. There are times when an individual with a disability may pursue a job goal for which, according to Alabama’s labor market demand, little opportunity of job growth exists. To address this issue, ADRS will provide professional staff with a labor market “dashboard” that will make it clear and easy to recognize which occupations within the state show the most promising future. Training will be provided to staff to enhance their ability to use current labor market information to facilitate the employment of individuals with disabilities into higher demand jobs.

D. Alabamians with disabilities often experience delays in participating in employment opportunities and subsequently lack “soft skills” such as communication, team building, decision-making, time-management, etc. Furthermore, Alabamians with developmental disabilities have a “soft skills” gap because of the nature of the disability and will require specific training geared towards addressing this “soft skills” gap.

E. Long gaps in employment history, due to absences from the job market either because of the onset of a disability or the intermittent need for medical treatment due to a disability, are often a source of concern among employers because there is a loss of skills that is typically be gained by workers who acquire specific skills-sets while working on-the-job over long periods of time.