Our April 2021 regional snapshot presents a detailed look at workforce conditions, with a dual focus on (a) overall demographic and earning characteristics of ARC 10-County Region  workers and (b) trends in target high-demand clusters of advanced manufacturing, healthcare, IT, skilled trades, and transportation/ logistics (as identified in the Atlanta Region’s 10-County WorkSource Plan).  A new data dashboard (developed by ARC Research & Analytics and Neighborhood Nexus for a CareerRise Economic Mobility Grant) allows interactive visualization of all of the trends mentioned in the snapshot, as well as enables user exploration of a lot of other related data on overall occupations and high demand clusters. Key snapshot findings are:

  • The occupations that have an over-representation of workers-of-color tend to have the lowest wages.
  • Lowest-wage workers have fared the worst in the pandemic economy, with employment rates declining some 23 percent since January 2020 for workers making less than $27K annually.
  • Growth in middle-wage occupations has stagnated; while many common low-wage occupations are paying less today, in real terms, than they did five years ago.
  • Occupations in high demand clusters have held up well compared to the job market overall.

For (much) more, click through the slides below or download the Regional Snapshot: Workforce (April 2021)

This snapshot obviously illuminates only a small section of the workforce landscape. For more contours of that landscape, particularly outlines of problems and challenges that have been exacerbated in the pandemic-era, we’d refer you to several blog posts that have recently appeared on this site: a look at relevant 2020 Metro Atlanta Speaks survey  data ; a deep dive into wage trends by wage classification group (high, middle, low); higher education trends by gender from 1970 to present; a post on the CareerRise dashboard mentioned above, and labor force participation by gender and age .  To further explore workforce data, employment data, and much, much more, check out DataNexus. And watch this blog for more posts on workforce issues as the pandemic pall lifts, industries change, occupations morph, and lessons are learned on skills and training.