BEDFORD — Radius Indiana’s regional survey of wages and benefits shows that 71 percent of companies in our 15-county, southwestern region expect to add workers in the next year, while only five percent anticipate potential layoffs.

Employers also anticipate increases in labor costs — 94 percent indicated that they expected to deliver pay increases in the following 12 months. And the employers reported they added a median average of more than five new employees in the preceding six months, and they averaged zero layoffs in the same period.

Radius carried out the survey of 76 companies in September and October, gathering information on wages and benefits for 14,640 employees in 63 occupational categories. No employee names or other personal information was reported to Radius in the production of the report.

Information gathered is intended to help the local companies that participated in the survey have up-to-date, real-world information about the labor market, to help them best hone their competitive compensation packages. The companies that responded to the survey were heavily, but not exclusively, representative of the manufacturing sector.

A sampling of 17 common positions that were covered by the survey showed that in the Radius region, 10 of the positions received lower mean salaries than the state and the national averages, while in five categories, the Radius mean salary was between the state and national averages, and in two cases, the Radius regional mean salary was above both the state and the national averages.

“Information from the wage and benefits survey allows us to better understand how local companies are positioned in the labor market. It is imperative that we stay up to date regarding compensation trends and, most importantly, use this data to be more impactful in economic development decisions,” said Shance Sizemore, CEO of the Lawrence County Economic Growth Council.

Radius average salaries for positions such as human resource manager and plant manager were below state and national averages. Office managers and forklift operators were between the state and federal levels in the Radius region, while IT/technical support employees earn a higher median salary in the Radius region than the state and national averages.

“Radius appreciated the opportunity to work with the Southwest Indiana Development Commission on this survey, and we also worked on behalf of our partner organization, Regional Opportunity Initiatives, to develop a comprehensive and valuable tool for our part of the state,” Radius CEO Jeff Quyle reported. “We want to help our local economic development organizations prove their value to their local business communities by helping to carry out a collaborative project such as this. It’s a part of our region’s culture for us to want to work with one another.”
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