Business leaders look toward in-demand sectors, skills

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The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, Charleston Regional Development Alliance and about 20 partners have worked to build an analysis to find out where post-pandemic job surges will take place across the region.

The study, Talent 2020 & Beyond (.pdf), also looked at which sectors might see permanent shifts and changes in skills needed to fill jobs.

“The driving question isn’t when will the jobs come back, but rather, where will the jobs be and what skills will they require?” said Tina Wirth, senior vice president of talent advancement for the chamber, said in releasing the report. “Leading with skills over occupational titles creates better alignment and increases potential employment matches.”

In the Charleston region, the highest paid workers are in business management, computer engineering and health care, the study details. That economic activity drives several surrounding industries, including manufacturing, real estate, accounting, legal, finance and industries that serve those sectors.

The report is designed to outline a “skills-forward approach” to help employers focus on skills that can aid employees’ success and to drive more talent to the region. The goal is to ensure that employees have the job skills to fill the jobs in emerging industries.

A major part of the study shows where jobs are in the highest demand and how workers can prepare themselves for those jobs.

For example, the five highest-demand workers in the Charleston area include:

Health care, technical writing, loan officers, heating and air conditioning installers, and retail supervisors. These job sectors pay between $40,000 and $78,000, the report indicates.

The report outlines some of the area’s challenges as well.

Using data from the American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, the report shows that while business management pays nearly $100,000 in the Charleston area, people of color fill only 19% of those jobs.

The gap is even larger in computer science and engineering, the No. 2 highest wage sector in the Charleston region. Only 15% of minorities fill those jobs, the report found.

“Present and historical workforce data shows that Black and Hispanic workers are not accessing the same opportunities as their white counterparts,” the report reads. “Black and Hispanic workers disproportionately occupy lower-skill, lower-wage occupations in our region such as food preparation, grounds cleaning and maintenance, and administrative support. Conversely, white workers disproportionately occupy positions in technology, finance, education and practitioner-level health care.”

The report says that a lot of “social capital inequity” comes from Black workers not having early access to the same resources as their white counterparts. The report said this leads to a legacy that emerges early and results in reduced wealth into adulthood.

All of the data, seen through the lens of the pandemic, could indicate the Charleston region is going to see a surge of jobs in the next five years. The report indicated the region should expect demand for 28,000 jobs from now until 2024.

“Economic disruption of this magnitude required moving from historical data to new data sources that show what is happening now in our region’s employment landscape,” said Jacki Renegar, director of the Center for Business Research.

To read the entire Talent 2020 & Beyond report, go to http://www.charlestonchamber.org/talent2020.