They’re cautiously optimistic at Kinexus and MIWorks!
The agencies that coordinate job recruiting and training and fight unemployment in Southwest Michigan are seeing some encouraging signs that people are more interested in going back to work, filling some of the thousands of job openings in the region.
Al Pscholka—a former state legislator and Michigan Budget Director—analyzes the numbers for Kinexus as Vice President of Government Relations. Pscholka told reporters that statistics for May showed the largest gain in the Labor Market since before the Pandemic. 130,000 people were in the three-county Southwest Michigan labor market in May, up by 2,700 in a month. 1,700 of those newly employed workers were in Berrien County, with the rest split between Cass and Van Buren counties. The region’s unemployment was close to the Michigan statewide average of 4.4 percent.
Pscholka said a portion of the labor market growth came from the seasonal uptick and recovery of the Leisure and Hospitality sector. The question, he said, is whether that improvement is sustainable after the Summer vacation and travel season ends.
Other major employment sectors continue to have their own challenges. Health Care, Southwest Michigan’s largest sector, still is witnessing an exodus of skilled workers, including nurses, leaving the field after the unique work environment of the pandemic—which still isn’t over in Health Care facilities. Manufacturing continues to fight the battle of ‘unskilled job applicants.’ Job training programs are either non-existent or can’t react fast enough to fill the manufacturing job vacancies. Kinexus and MIWorks work with specific employers and industries to attack that problem through multiple types of job training programs and direct assistance to job seekers to prepare them to fill available job opportunities.
MIWorks reports that a recent Job Fair in Benton Harbor resulted in 38 job offers being extended and 19 individuals being hired. An ‘Expungement Fair’—where job seekers can begin the process of clearing their records of old criminal convictions—attracted 76 applicants. 37 of them were found to be qualified to enter the five-month process that can result in clearing their record and clearing the way for them to apply for many available jobs.
A ’real life example’ of the Expungement Program involved a middle-aged man with an excellent employment record who would be eligible for a big promotion—except for a 30 year old criminal record when he was young. The expungement process allowed him to have his record cleared—and he’s now been promoted to his new position.
Kinexus spokesperson Mary Morphey pointed out that kind of ‘applicant-specific’ problem-solving activities are what the agency can do for individuals. “Any employment roadblock, we want to try to help clear it,” said Morpey.
Learn more about Kinexus at: www.kinexus.org
Learn more about MIWorks job and employment services at: www.miworks.org
