Training is the key to finding a good job
Skills mean more for job seekers in a recession
A financial crisis, a slowing economy— and high-paying jobs sitting open?
It sounds like it doesn’t add up, but that’s the situation facing entrants into the job market these days, experts said.
While unemployment in the Buffalo region is rising, skilled jobs in some industries are available — for people with the right training.
“The high-level jobs are always in demand,” said James Finamore, executive director of the Buffalo and Erie County Workforce Investment Board.
That can mean a year or more of training, but not necessarily.
Dislocated workers apply for retraining aid through the work force agency, which issued over 400 individual vouchers for up to $2,400 in training aid last year.
“Guess how many were for trucking?” Finamore said. The answer: 90, or nearly a quarter of all the individual vouchers.
And no wonder. With driving skills, truckers can earn about $50,000 a year.
“Trucking is a constant,” Finamore said. “It’s one of the few occupations where a person with a high school diploma alone can earn enough to support a family.”
Area truck-driving schools see a stream of recruits as people retrain from declining industries, he said. One reason is that turnover among long-haul drivers is high. Long spells away from home make driving a difficult work-life balancing act.
“You’re going to be racking up a lot of hours to do that,” Finamore said of the typical pay, “and a lot of miles.”
At the region’s one-stop employment centers, training is available for job seekers to brush up on computer skills, interviewing and job-hunting tactics.
With job listings scattered across the expanse of the Internet, “it is harder to find jobs these days,” said Coleen Cummings, director of the Buffalo Employment & Training Center at 77 Goodell St. “You have to be an educated consumer.”
Sessions and workshops available at the center include interview techniques and help for senior workers to market their experience as an asset. A veterans representative is on hand to help returning vets and counselors from the City of Buffalo aid released prisoners in finding jobs as part of reintegration in society.
Training aid is available for in-demand occupations up and down the skill ladder.
Health care employers tell the agency that nuclear medicine technologists are in demand, a job that pays $50,000 a year, Finamore said. These are people who administer radiation therapies to patients, and monitor the results.
Another high-demand occupation is phlebotomist — someone who draws blood. They are being hired in labs and nursing homes as well as doctors’ offices, with wages of typically $22,000 a year available for people with a high-school diploma and training from BOCES.
Erie Community College has a short-term non-credit training program in bio-manufacturing, an opportunity- rich field, he said, and is working on a one-year certificate course. Companies like Invitrogen and American Pharmaceutical Partners, which supply laboratory products, often have openings in the bio-manufacturing field.
Traditional manufacturing is also providing opportunities for trained workers, to the surprise of many, Finamore said.
“In manufacturing there’s still is a tremendous need for tool and die makers,” he said. “There’s such a demand that companies are pirating students before they graduate.”
Erie Community College’s industrial technology programs include training in precision machine tool and plastic injection molding.
Employment services also offer some skills training for job applicants.
“People can come into the office and learn a specific skill on a software package,” said Steven Ferraro, area director of Adecco Employment Services. “Now where the job market is a bit tighter, I think we’ll see a lot more people taking advantage of that.”
For office jobs, employers usually expect applicants to have familiarity with Microsoft software for tasks like e-mail, word processing and spreadsheets.
“It’s not enough to just type on a computer anymore,” Ferraro said. “They should also know how to use office software, and how to look up information on the Internet.”
Technology skills remain in demand as corporations invest more in efficiency moves. Forrester research predicts a 10 percent increase in tech spending this year, coming out of a slow 2008.
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