Manufacturing

Greater Jackson Alliance Workforce Assessment
General Manufacturing Sector

Younger Associates has evaluated the suitability of the workforce and availability of skilled workers for the Manufacturing sector in the Greater Jackson Alliance area. This evaluation is based upon a comprehensive workforce analysis completed in September 2008 in collaboration with Wadley-Donovan GrowthTech.

To gain a current and accurate measurement of labor availability by skill set, Younger Associates conducted a labor supply survey that yielded data with a +4% margin of error. The assessment found a skilled workforce and a pool of available and underemployed workers with skills directly related to, or readily transferable to, general manufacturing. For this report, labor availability has been updated to reflect March 2009 levels.

The Greater Jackson Alliance Area Labor Market has over 295,000 employed workers and a labor reserve of more than 210,000 potential and underemployed workers. The Greater Jackson Area has an established manufacturing base consisting of fabricated housing, food processing, metal fabrication, and wood products manufacturing. As a result, many of the available workers are prepared for manufacturing jobs.

The Greater Jackson Alliance Area has an available pool of over 22,700 experienced workers within the labor reserve who have skills directly related to manufacturing in general. These workers have training and experience in skilled manufacturing, production manufacturing, industrial maintenance and materials handling.

Additionally, there is a pool of workers in the labor reserve with skills in construction and special trades that bring the total availability to over 41,000 workers for manufacturers of manufactured housing and housing component or wood products. A manufacturer in these industries could expect to attract 2,400 to 2,600 fully screened and qualified candidates depending upon the exact location within the Greater Jackson Area.

A food processing operation could draw from an available labor reserve pool of over 30,900 workers with skills in basic manufacturing and in food handling/preparation. A food processing employer offering competitive wages could expect to attract 1,600 to 1,750 screened and qualified candidates.

The labor reserve also offers good availability of workers with business, office administration, and customer support expertise. A manufacturer can fully staff their entire operation from the Greater Jackson Alliance Area labor pool.

Each year, colleges and universities serving the Greater Jackson Alliance Area produce over 3,200 graduates of programs directly related to manufacturing. More than 1,100 of these graduates are from schools within or in close proximity to the Greater Jackson Area.

Table 1 below shows the number of people currently employed in the occupations listed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as directly related to the general manufacturing sector. Also shown is the number of workers within each skill set area that are not currently employed but are interested in finding employment. This group is comprised of the recently unemployed and groups such as people returning to the workforce after caring for family, entering the workforce after completing school or training, early retirees seeking to reenter the workforce, and separating military. The underemployed workers are currently working below their skill level and have demonstrated skills in the skill sets shown.

Table 1: Greater Jackson Workforce Area Skill Sets: General Manufacturing
Source: Younger Associates Labor Supply Survey 2008, Updated March 2009
Skill Set	Currently Employed	Not Employed, But Interested	Underemployed	Total Availability
Manufacturing - Skilled	13,225	5,640	3,455	9,095
Manufacturing - Production	5,750	4,440	595	5,035
Transportation & Material Movers	13,500	1,290	1,790	3,080
Maintenance & Service Technicians	3,150	3,465	2,085	5,550
Subtotal	35,625	14,835	7,925	22,760
Construction	5,495	4,850	2,975	7,825
Special Trades	4,600	3,950	6,550	10,500
Subtotal: Mfg + Construction & Trades	45,720	23,635	17,450	41,085
Food Preparation	11,630	7,900	330	8,230
Subtotal: Mfg. + Food Preparation	48,255	22,735	8,255	30,990

Note: The special trades skills include electricians, plumbers, pipe-fitters, steam-fitters, electronic and mechanical repair technicians. Some of these skills are directly related to general manufacturing although others are not. In determining the number of qualified manufacturing candidates, this skill group was conservatively screened down to the number of workers with the most directly applicable skills.

Labor Quality and Cost

Employers were asked to rate their workforce, on a scale of one to five with five being highest on the following labor quality measures.

Work Ethic	3.0
Productivity	3.1
Willingness to work overtime	3.4
Punctuality	3.0
Overall employer/employee relations	3.4

Overall, annual average wages for manufacturing occupations in the Greater Jackson Area range from 11% to 30% lower than the national average. In some traditional manufacturing industries such as fabricated housing the annual average wage across all occupations is 33% lower than the national average wage in that industry.

Workforce Education and Training

Table 2 below shows the total number of graduates and the number of graduates with degrees directly related to general manufacturing from the colleges and universities serving the Greater Jackson Alliance Area.

Table 2: Greater Jackson Alliance Area Annual General Manufacturing Graduates
Source: US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (IPEDS)
Name	Address	Distance from Jackson, MS	Type	Total Enrollment	Undergraduate Degree/ Certificate	General Manufacturing Graduates*
Alcorn State University	Alcorn	67.9 miles	4-yr, Public	3,688	559	26
Antonelli College	Jackson	0.4 miles	2-yr, Private for-profit	240	82	5
Belhaven College	Jackson	1.1 miles	4-yr, Private not-for-profit	2,485	470	6
Copiah-Lincoln Community College	Wesson	42.9 miles	2-yr, Public	2,382	719	123
East Central Community College	Decatur	63.6 miles	2-yr, Public	2,281	485	86
Hinds Community College	Raymond	15.2 miles	2-yr, Public	9,941	1,476	145
Holmes Community College	Goodman	49.3 miles	2-yr, Public	5,107	641	70
Jackson State University ^R	Jackson	0.5 miles	4-yr, Public	8,698	834	90
Jones Junior College	Ellisville	75.0 miles	2-yr, Public	4,683	904	116
Meridian Community College	Meridian	79.2 miles	2-yr, Public	3,543	667	79
Millsaps College	Jackson	2.4 miles	4-yr, Private not-for-profit	1,151	199	3
Mississippi College	Clinton	8.6 miles	4-yr, Private not-for-profit	4,467	542	15
Mississippi Delta Community College	Moorehead	82.0 miles	2-yr, Public	3,006	432	71
Mississippi Valley State University	Itta Bena	83.4 miles	4-yr, Public	3,009	511	15
Southwest Mississippi Community College	Simmit	71.1 miles	2-yr, Public	1,843	407	37
Tougaloo College	Tougaloo	7.0 miles	4-yr, Private not-for-profit	856	131	1
University of Southern Mississippi^R	Hattiesburg	83.4 miles	4-yr, Public	14,592	2,277	205
Virginia College-Jackson	Jackson	5.1 miles	2-yr, Private for-profit	905	286	34
Total Within Market Area				72,877	11,622	1,127
Mississippi State University ^R	Starkville	114.4 miles	4-yr, Public	17,039	2,588	1,058
University of Mississippi Main Campus ^R	Oxford	148.2 miles	4-yr, Public	15,129	2,376	1,062
Total				105,045	16,586	3,247
*Programs of study include: Computer/Information Systems, Engineering & Engineering Technologies, Mechanical & Repair Technologies, Precision Production and Transportation & Materials Moving.
R - Carnegie Classified Research University