Research overview: 

By the end of the decade, the U.S. military will be downsized by approximately 350,000 people, and Home Base Iowa seeks to attract as many of these veterans to the state as possible by offering good-paying jobs. 

In response to Gov. Terry Branstad’s announcement of the Home Base Iowa initiative in January 2014, leaders of the Iowa Business Council pledged that its member organizations – the 20 largest private employers in the state, the Iowa Bankers Association and the Regents universities – would hire at least 2,500 qualified, honorably discharged veterans or their spouses by the end of 2018. 

To better quantify how many job openings may actually occur over the next several years, the Iowa Business Council sought assistance from UNI’s Business and Community Service Division. The research completed in the past year also provides more insight into the types of positions that will be needed at Iowa’s largest employers, as Home Base Iowa looks to recruit talent from the ranks of retiring service members. Collectively, the Iowa Business Council’s member organizations employ nearly 250,000 people in all 99 counties. 

The Method: 

The data on potential openings was based on employers’ estimates within each of the Iowa Business Council member organizations, including a count of current and projected openings for the next three years, as well as openings though retirements over the next seven years. 

“We surveyed the (human resources) people and company presidents about what areas of their businesses they felt might see the most focus and expansion, or at least sustaining activity,” said Drew Conrad, senior program manager at the Institute for Decision Making at UNI. “It’s a little bit of a crystal-ball analysis, but we still developed a pretty good set of expected openings and skill sets.” 

The data that UNI produced is also being used by the Iowa Department of Education and Iowa Workforce Development to develop more details about the positions that are most in demand in Iowa, Conrad said. “They’re doing another cross-walk with instructional programs and minimum requirements to determine what skills and education are needed for those jobs. So if they tell a veteran there are positions available, and if they don’t have all the educational requirements, they can say, ‘Here’s what you need.’” 

Results:

The survey of Iowa Business Council organizations revealed that approximately 25,000 job openings would become available from Iowa’s largest employers over the next seven years. 

The demographics of Iowa’s aging work force mean that there will be a significant amount of retirements over the next decade. Currently, nearly 23 percent of people employed in Iowa, excluding sole proprietors, are 55 or older, Conrad said. 

Elliott Smith, executive director of the Iowa Business Council, said that its member companies have already reported hiring nearly 1,000 veterans or spouses in the four quarters that it has been tracking results of the program. 

“We haven’t gotten very far in analyzing the success, but so far it’s going great guns,” Smith said. When the initial commitment of 2,500 jobs by 2018 was made, no one was sure what a reasonable timeframe was for the project, he noted. “Hopefully we crush that number by 2018,” he said. 

Conclusion:

The research data “gives us a much better picture of our workforce needs,” said Kathy Anderson, program manager for Home Base Iowa. “It allow us to know with clarity which positions are hardest to fill. And it allows us to use that information to go after that talent with much more clarity and efficiency, for sure.” 

For instance, by knowing that the state needs more information technology talent, Home Base Iowa can target its efforts to military bases that have concentrations of that particular career area, Anderson said. 

The data also helps Iowa in preparing for a longer-term effort in meeting education and training needs, she said. 

“As service members are pursuing educational opportunities here in the Iowa, we want to make sure educational institutions here know what those needs are. … We see this as incredibly valuable information that helps us align our marketing and business needs.” 

Anderson said she anticipates the data will also be made available on an aggregated basis for use by Iowa companies.

Best prospects 

Here are some of the positions within Iowa Business Council companies that had the largest number of openings, based on projected open position in the next three years and retirement over the next seven years: 

-Computer systems analysts
-Engineers
-Fabricators and production work
-Financial analysts
-Installation/maintenance/repair
-Health care service managers
-Machine and equipment operators
-Nurses
-Software developers
-Teachers

Source: Iowa Business Council