Middle-skills jobs, millennials lead some workforce categories – Iowa report
Iowa Workforce Development is issuing a new report this week on middle-skills jobs, which include construction workers, occupational therapy assistants, paralegals and massage therapists, for example.
The report indicates that over half of Iowa’s jobs are in the middle-skill categories, and the state predicts that half of all job openings through 2022 will also be at those levels.
Middle skills generally require more than a high-school education, but less than a four-year college degree, IWD reported.
A closer look:
- Based on 2012 figures, Iowa had 926,000 middle-skills jobs. That’s expected to rise to 1 million by 2022.
- Most of those jobs pay between $30,000 and $60,000. The higher end jobs in that range typically are in business operations, finance, healthcare, construction and installation, for example.
- IWD projects that 53 percent of new jobs posted through 2022 will involved those middle skills.
The report also notes that millennials make up the largest share of Iowa’s workforce at 38 percent. Baby boomers account for 32.2 percent and Gen X, 29 percent. The remainder didn’t answer a survey question.
The 56-page report gives a job-by-job projection of employment, current median incomes, and estimated growth rates for each position.
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