Mar. 14—SOUTHERN INDIANA — Southern Indiana Works held its State of the Workforce Summit on Tuesday to discuss a gamut of issues facing employers and employees.
SIW serves employers and employees with a variety of career training efforts and partnerships. The annual summit featured information from Southern Indiana resources as well as input from SIW's counterpart across the Ohio River at KentuckianaWorks.
Sarah Ehresman, KentuckianaWorks director of labor market intelligence, shared some of the organization's recent research. One of the big topics from KentuckianaWorks' labor research report was the COVID recession and how it seriously affected the job market.
From their findings, they reported that all jobs that had been lost during the pandemic have been recovered, and more.
"They continue to add even more jobs to the payroll to the point where we now have almost 10,000 more jobs on payroll in December 2022 than we did before the pandemic," Ehresman said.
Their report also found that there are 685,000 people in the labor force in the Kentuckiana region, which is a number larger than what they reported in 2021, 2020 and 2019.
Unemployment in the region was at 16% in April 2022, but by December of last year it was at 2.7%.
"This is one of the lowest ever recorded in our regions," Ehresman said.
Wages were another part of the research. KentuckianaWorks found that employees in the region are earning 5.5% higher wages when compared to last year and they are up 18% from before the pandemic. But even though there has been an increase in wages, earnings have not kept up with the pace of inflation.
Despite employees working more and earning more, inflation has eroded the purchasing power of these workers.
Southern Indiana Works Report
SIW's mission is to lead a robust talent development system and cultivate a skilled workforce that advances the community, economy and quality of life.
The way they aim to achieve their mission is by helping individuals increase their skills to take them to the next level, whether that be digital skills, employability skills or any other skill they may have.
Tony Waterson, SIW's president and CEO, went through the accomplishments of the organization over the past year.
With the help of two new partners, River Valley Resources and National Able Network, SIW was able to assist more residents and employers in 2022. River Valley Resources provides adult education classes twice a week and National Able Network provides a senior community service employment program.