News
Earl Buford, chief executive officer, talks with the Pittsburgh Business Times about the future at Partner4Work.
In the second quarter of 2018, approximately 41 percent of all jobs posted online in the Pittsburgh Metro region were considered hard to fill. Between April and June, it took regional employers longer to fill some 26,000 open positions compared to the national average for those same occupations. So, why are employers finding it hard to fill these jobs?
Allegheny County, the City of Pittsburgh and Partner4Work today celebrated the start of the 2018 Learn & Earn summer youth employment program at the Best Buy Teen Tech Center.
PITTSBURGH (June 1, 2018) — The Partner4Work Board of Directors’ today joined 12 urban workforce boards in an unprecedented consortium to drive regional economic growth, bring resources to Southwestern PA, and connect people with opportunity. Called Midwest Urban Strategies (MUS), the consortium is the first of its kind made up of workforce development boards and the U.S. Department of Labor.
Nationally, more than 20 percent of workers hold an occupational license. Compared to their unlicensed counterparts who work in the same field, licensed workers hold jobs longer, have fewer part-time jobs, and are less likely to be unemployed. Many of the job training programs in which Partner4Work invests are working to ease the burden of obtaining an occupational license for people determined to advance their careers and improve their earnings, but who don’t have access to the opportunity.
Last week Partner4Work, the workforce development agency for Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, announced the hiring of a new chief executive. Our city is fortunate to attract one of the nation’s top workforce professionals, Earl Buford.
Earl Buford, President and Chief Executive Officer of Employ Milwaukee, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Partner4Work (P4W). He will assume the role on June 4, 2018.
Allegheny County, the City of Pittsburgh and Partner4Work today announce the opening of the application period for the 2018 Learn & Earn Summer Youth Employment Program and call on area employers to inspire the next generation of talent by participating in Learn & Earn’s Corporate Internship component. Learn & Earn annually connects nearly 2,000 underserved Allegheny County and Pittsburgh residents ages 14 through 21 with 6-week summer jobs in high-demand sectors including health care, education and STEM.
Contingent workers comprise about 16 percent of the national workforce, growing by 9 million between 2005 and 2015, according to the latest estimate. It includes independent contractors, those hired through temp agencies, and contract company workers. Economists believe this rise of the contingent workforce is transforming the labor market. Beyond hours worked and wages, it affects a slew of social guarantees associated with the traditional employer/employee relationship.
Data from online job postings in 2017 show that occupations in sales (22,000 job postings); office and administrative support (20,500); healthcare practitioners and technical areas (20,000); computer and mathematical areas (19,000); management (17,200); and transportation (13,900) are in demand in the Pittsburgh metro area. There is a clear demand from businesses to fill open positions in the region. But are there people to fill these jobs?
At 4.9 percent, Pittsburgh’s December 2017 unemployment rate is approaching a level the Federal Reserve considers nearing “full employment.” This follows a trend of low unemployment rates at the state (4.7 percent) and national levels (4.1 percent). A tightening labor market has generated more competition among businesses for workers, with some of the country’s biggest employers offering more attractive benefits packages, according to a recent New York Times article. While these benefit packages typically have been used to attract salaried workers, employers are using them to recruit hourly workers, too.
The National League of Cities announced the six cities that will participate in its Cities for Racial Equity and Racial Healing Technical Assistance Initiative, and Pittsburgh made the list, along with Charlotte, North Carolina; Long Beach, Calif.; Rochester, N.Y.; St. Paul, Minn.; and Wichita, Kan.
If the Pittsburgh region lands Amazon’s second headquarters, then it will soon be confronted with another challenge: How to fill the 50,000 jobs that Amazon expects HQ2 will need.
Source: Pittsburgh Business Times
Source: Pittsburgh Today
A banker, a health care provider and a delivery service worker all walk into a local middle school to talk about jobs.
It sounds like a joke, and Caitlin McLaughlin, an executive vice president at PNC Financial Services Group Inc., had to laugh at the premise, even though she issued the invitation to UPMC and FedEx Ground last spring.
Source: Pittsburgh Business Times
Partner4Work, the workforce development organization for the Pittsburgh area, is teaming up with the charitable arm of Google to expand access to IT careers to those underrepresented in the technology industry. As a Google.org nonprofit grantee, Partner4Work will provide access to 100 scholarships to train young adults with the skills needed to begin an IT career.