CareerSource Palm Beach County – In the Palm Beach County Workforce Analysis report by Boyette Strategic Advisors released in June 2018, 56% of Palm Beach County employers surveyed identified lack of work skills as their greatest challenge to employee recruitment.
Here’s how we’re helping to close that skills gap:
Five years ago we were still improving from the recession that began in 2008. Unemployment was over 7% — double what it is now. Back then, finding jobs was a long and difficult process for most job seekers. Today, businesses in Palm Beach County are expanding but can’t find people with the skills they need to fill their jobs.
CareerSource and its community partners are engaged in several efforts to address the skills gap in Palm Beach County. We assist job seekers with training, soft skills and placements. We spend $2 million annually in training dollars to upgrade the skills of job seekers with certificates/degrees, apprenticeships/internships and training grants to help meet employer demand for skilled talent.
We work with the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, School District of Palm Beach County, colleges and universities along with some 12,000 businesses that use our services to develop a Targeted Occupations List (TOL) of in-demand jobs in Palm Beach County. This list of 107 occupations shows the annual percentage of job growth, wages, and career paths. Click here to see the list on our website:
Our training providers use the TOL to develop curriculum and courses to meet these in-demand jobs. We currently support 43 training providers offering 673 courses. We also work with our training providers to help develop new courses to meet the needs of local businesses based on their input.
Are you finding it difficult to locate and recruit candidates with the skills you need for your business? Let us help you! CareerSource provides a comprehensive package of services to help businesses compete in today’s challenging marketplace. We absorb the cost of most services including recruitment, assessments and referrals of qualified job candidates; space and staff assistance for screening/interviewing candidates; and grants for training employees. We save you time, effort and money by sourcing local candidates. During the past five program years, CareerSource Palm Beach County assisted more than 92,000 residents find employment ranging from entry level to executive suite, with salaries from these jobs creating $2.1 billion in annual wages. CareerSource also has awarded $13 million in grants to area businesses and employees for training and educational assistance during that time.
In conjunction with CareerSource Florida’s sector strategies initiative and focus on sharing a regional vision, strategically aligning with our partners and transforming delivery of services, we are able to convene with our community partners to support local business growth.
Your Regional Economic Outlook
The most recent unemployment rate for Palm Beach County is 3.9 percent, that was lower than the 2017 rate of 4.4 percent, and matched the nation’s 3.9 percent rate (all numbers not seasonally adjusted).
When we track our local labor force growth, unemployment and employment figures, we are looking for trends that may point to a change in our local economy. In the chart below we track total employment for Palm Beach County and this figure continues to grow monthly, measured year-over to account for local seasonality.
