Sheboygan County, along with the other 71 Wisconsin Counties, has had its workforce analyzed by the State of Wisconsin showing past trends and future challenges, something that’s done every two years.
The latest look paints a picture of a struggle that’s common nearly everywhere: a high demand for skilled workers to fill available jobs…workers who themselves face their own economic challenges.
Here are some Sheboygan County Profile Highlights from the report:
A growing demand for workers has not been offset by population growth, which was 3-tenths of a percentage point lower than the statewide rate. Since the 2020 Census, population here increased by point-six percent, or 742 residents. Among the county’s major municipalities, only the Town of Plymouth showed a decline.
Using 2019 as a pre-pandemic benchmark, employment in Sheboygan County increased by 1%, or 580 jobs across all industries from 2020 to 2021. That compares with the State growth of 2.4% during the same period.
Manufacturing, the largest sector, made up 35.8% of total County employment, with Education and Health Services coming in second at 18.5% and Trade, Transportation and Utilities in third place at 15.9% of total employment here.
Sheboygan County faces four main barriers to full workforce participation: Transportation, Housing, Childcare, and Access to Broadband.
As for Transportation, when it’s a condition of work there’s a conflict. Qualified individuals could fill a job if they had transportation, and could afford transportation if they had a job.
More than 35-and-a-half percent of Sheboygan County pays more than 30% of income on housing, and that issue is worsening, as is the availability of affordable housing in general.
The Cost of Childcare in Sheboygan County exceeds statewide levels across all three age groups, with monthly costs ranging from $719 for a school-aged child, to $903 for an infant. Sheboygan County has a capacity to care for 1,695 children altogether, so that even those who can afford it might not find it available in the first place.
Nearly 13% (12.9%) of County Residents don’t have broadband internet access. That rate is 39.3% for those with income under $20,000, while even among those earning $75,000 or more 3.8% do not have access to broadband internet, thus making it difficult to take advantage of virtual employment, training, and education opportunities.
The report from the Department of Workforce Development suggested four solutions that could help address the major problems faced by employers, but not all are palatable and none are easy:
1- offshoring production; 2- immigration; 3-mitigating barriers to employing the chronically unemployed; 4- technological advancement.
In summary, the DWD says that worker skills must align with skills demanded by the position. If a worker has the talent and not the job, the talent goes elsewhere…If the employer has the job available but not the talent, the job goes elsewhere. For Wisconsin to successfully compete in the global economy, the state needs to attract and retain every body it can by removing barriers to employment, while educating and training everybody to match the requirements of the new technologies.
Here is the sheboygan profile
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