Dislocated Worker Survey

Like several parts of the nation, the St. Louis MSA region has witnessed its fair share of layoffs and plant closures resulting in a huge number of dislocated workers. This survey was designed to capture the skill level, work history and career goals of these workers with a view to better serving their needs and assisting them re-engage in the workforce. This survey was administered via the network of Missouri Career Centers - a statewide network that provides valuable workforce services: personalized career-assistance services from trained workforce specialists for job seekers; assistance from business representatives and access to other valuable business services for businesses. A total of 447 responses were collected from the North Oaks Missouri Career Center, the Deer Creek Missouri Career Center, Slate Career Center, St. Louis Central Career Center, Illinois Employment and Training Center at Granite City, Madison County Employment and Training Center, the South County Missouri Career Center and the South West Illinois Worknet Center.

Dislocated workers are those who lose their job due to no particular fault of their own, but rather due to a business shut down or layoff.

Key Findings

• At present, approximately 53% of the dislocated workers are male and 47% are female.
• The highest percentage of dislocated workers is in the age group of 45-49 years (15%).
• A significant majority of the dislocated workers (79%) are the primary wage earners of the household.
• The largest cohort of dislocated workers surveyed (32%) had completed a high school diploma or GED. 25% had some college education but no completed degree, 11% had no High School Diploma/GED while the remaining 30% has some technical trade college or vocational certificate or license. 2% had some post secondary education.
• The percentage of dislocated workers who had been without work for more than 6 months was 48%, followed by 20% who had been without work for more than 3 months but less than 6 months and about 19% had been out of work for more than 1 month but less than 3 months.
• The largest portion of dislocated workers (36%) had spent at least a year at the last company they were employed at before being laid off.

On further investigation, the data indicated that the two most contributing factors to job losses in the region were insufficient work and company closures.

Challenges in getting a new job

A majority of the surveyed dislocated workers (57%) described finding a job at current wages or benefits, the lack of jobs in their respective fields and an age barrier as the three most daunting challenges faced by them in getting a new job. Collectively, 22% of workers identified lack of skills as a primary challenge to finding a new job. The combination of these factors leads to the conclusion that many dislocated workers will be earning substantially less than their former positions.

Other data from the Department of Labor indicates that the relationship between educational attainment and wage is strong and positive. Among workers, 25 years or older, median weekly earnings of wage and salary is almost two and a half times more for person with at least a college degree than for those who have not completed high school.

Services helpful to Dislocated Workers

When dislocated workers were surveyed about the kind of services that would be most helpful to them in getting back to work, nineteen percent of them stated that receiving job leads or job placement would be most useful, followed by eleven percent who wanted training in high demand occupations and ten percent who would like to gain job search skills.

A follow-up question was then asked about what specific kind of training would be beneficial to the dislocated workers. An overwhelming majority of the respondents (63%) were interested in short term training (2-8 weeks or more), followed by other skill training (23%) such as computer and English speaking skills. Only a very small percentage (14%) were interested in long term education.

While short-term accelerated training is preferred by most dislocated workers it may not always be aligned with job openings, particularly with the down-sizing of traditional manufacturing. Credentialed occupations in healthcare is an example of an occupation in high demand but not conducive to a short term program. As the economy recovers, decision makers will need real-time workforce intelligence to match short-term, accelerated programs to jobs in demand.

To gain a better understanding of their needs, dislocated workers were then asked what they perceived as barriers preventing them from committing to a long term educational program. It was clear that the cost of the program and the need to support their families posed a major obstacle to dislocated workers in engaging in long term training programs. However as part of the Pell Grant Scholarship Program, initiated earlier this year, dislocated workers who receive Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits will receive special consideration for financial aid to pay for job training or education and may also be able to keep their UI benefits while enrolled.

As the graph above indicates, only 5% of respondents stated that the lack of available training programs, or their ability to be admitted to them, was a barrier to participation in long term training. Nearly all other respondents indicated that the lack of wage support or other supportive services were major barriers to engaging in the longer term education and training programs that lead to high-demand, high wage opportunities.

Synopsis

The results of this survey will help economic development and workforce planners gauge the readiness of workers who have been laid off during to recession to retrain them with new skills that will drive the post-recovery economy. The survey will also provide useful information that will help determine the optimum schedule and length of training programs and the correct mix of services necessary to assure that workers will be able to complete training and re-engage in the workplace. The survey of dislocated workers suggests some major challenges for workforce development officials and policy makers. Although some of these challenges are new, most are continuations, at a faster pace, of trends that we have already seen over the last 30 years. These challenges include "How to balance the design of programs between short-term programs that can quickly re-engage workers, perhaps at lower wage levels, with longer term programs necessary to qualify workers for high demand, high wage occupations" and "How to provide wage supports, through stipends or on the job training, that could sustain a family through a one year or more training program".