SOUTHERN INDIANA — Southern Indiana Works’ annual State of the Workforce Summit asked local, regional and national workforce development experts Tuesday to look at what’s been accomplished and what’s ahead.
And, they discussed how SIW and other organizations are developing a talent pipeline for the Southern Indiana region.
Sara Ehresman, the director of labor market intelligence at KentuckianaWorks, reported first that the Kentuckiana region has recovered all the jobs lost during COVID.
“The region lost 103,000 jobs in two months (during the pandemic),” Ehresman said. “The region has since recovered all the jobs that have been lost. In fact, in the third quarter of 2022, we had the same number of jobs on payrolls as we did before the pandemic happened.”
She added that the region is seeing 13,000 more jobs on the payrolls in December 2023 than in February 2020.
Despite having the same number of jobs, there has not been as much growth as there was in 2013 to 2018, Ehresman said.
In 2023, the unemployment rate was 3.6%. In 2022 it was at 3.5%. Despite the unemployment rate being low, the workforce is shrinking because of retirement.
Alex Maggos, a senior manager at Ascend Indiana, talked about youth apprenticeship and how it can help young people learn skills and gain employment at the same time.
“We have recognized that our traditional academic system does not serve the needs of all our students,” Maggos said. “We’re seeing students fall out of the traditional education system and not connect to college.”
The Indiana Commission for Higher Education has reported that Indiana has only about a 53% college enrollment rate, Maggos added. When a student gets to the campus, we continue to lose students. Only about 25% of students make it to graduation.
To help the students get the necessary skills to maintain a higher paying job without a college degree, Ascend has started the Youth Apprenticeship program. SIW has become a pilot site for this program and helps bring young people in to start an apprenticeship in Southern Indiana.
Right now, there are over 400 people in the apprenticeship program.
Tony Waterson, the president and CEO of Southern Indiana Works, updated how SIW has impacted Southern Indiana in 2023.
From July 2022 to June 2023, the approximate total economic wage impact made by SIW was $6,668,813. It also served 520 businesses and gave around $556,000 in employer training grants to support local businesses.
“Through Gov. Holcomb’s Next Level Jobs Employer Training Grant, we provided over half a million dollars to 24 businesses in the area to train nearly 210 workers, all of whom received a 3% wage increase or more and a certification,” Waterson said. “We’re not only helping to train the individual, we’re also investing in the business.”
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